Continuing education

Training is tool used to attract workers

Recruitment efforts of trade
groups, unions target all ages

By Ellen Hickok-Wall
Daily Reporter Staff

A nuts-and-bolts gander at training and apprenticeships in construction revealed that educational approaches have changed during the last decade to serve a changing industry.

A skilled-worker shortage that's become increasingly notable sent educators to drawing boards to make the building trades more visible - and attractive - to people of all ages.

Raising awareness levels of the various trades among children when they are in the formative years has become the norm.

Before children are strong enough to wield hammers or coordinated enough to drive screws, they're exposed to cartoons and life-size toy tools.

Below are a few ways some industry groups are trying to recruit new workers to fill that shrinking pool.

Learning the ABCs

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin Web site offers young people the ability to track a career path from elementary school to owning a company, said Kelly Pourdot, ABC's apprenticeship director.

"Students, parents, teachers - everybody can just click on Trytools.org, and it'll answer all kinds of construction-related questions," Pourdot said.

Matt McClone, marketing coordinator for ABC, said the site is "easily navigable for kids, elementary or middle school and up through high school."

ABC doesn't need a slide rule to measure its success - the rising numbers of apprentices from year to year attest to it.

"This year was another record year for an apprenticeship program," said Ellie Hein, director of training services for ABC. "We had more than 1,300 registered apprenticeships, with 400 added this year."

Hein said ABC has outreach programs geared for every grade level beginning with elementary students - escalating as students get older.

During ninth and 10th grades, students are introduced through ABC's Learning for Life, which is part of Boy Scouts Explorers.

"We have a real good link there because ABC has a committee called Careers in Construction," Hein said.

High school juniors and seniors can participate in a School-to-Work program, working with contractors part time.

ABC of Wisconsin holds a state skill competition every fall for people registered in apprenticeship or craft-training programs.

Top finishers in each trade go to the National Craft Olympics, now in its 16th year, where entrants compete in a series of craft-related exercises that test their skills. Pourdot said the competition is stiff.

"There are more than 100 entries in the five trades," she said.

This year, she said, three of the Wisconsin apprentices came home from San Antonio, Texas, in March with the top three honors.

Pourdot said ABC has developed new training programs for heavy equipment operators, concrete finishers and data communications installers.

Ladder of success

The Associated General Contractors of America starts at the bottom rung of its Ladder of Learning, offering coloring books and interactive exhibits to children grades kindergarten through three.

A Build Up! educational tool kit, which is offered to students grades three through six, attempts to lay a foundation for construction as a future for children.

Marsha Gabriel, assistant project manager with general contractor Hunzinger Construction Co. in Brookfield, goes to elementary schools in spring and fall to introduce students to careers in construction and uses Build Up! as a guide.

"I'm involved through Junior Achievement," Gabriel said. "The third-grade program is geared toward building. We talk about building in construction and site planning, so the Build Up! kit is very relevant."

Gabriel said one of the goals of working with young children is to eliminate the impression that careers in construction are somehow less desirable.

"It's definitely part of my focus to let them know that there are excellent and rewarding careers - even on a professional level," Gabriel said. "When people think of the construction trade, they always think of the field."

Gabriel works at overcoming another preconceived notion about the industry.

"I tell them that the construction field is very rewarding for men and women alike," she said. "It is not limited to either men or women.

"Here I am. I'm a woman, but I'm in the construction industry. It has a very high level of professionalism to it. I work closely with architects and engineers."

Gabriel said it's not too early for 8-year-old students to be thinking of a career. Academic subjects students begin learning in kindergarten are important, she said, for careers in construction.

"It's not just a job where you can come in off the street," she said. "It's important to have good communication skills, good math skills."

Gabriel said the kids have responded wonderfully.

"I hope that I might be the one who might help give someone a good idea," she said. "The future is very bright, and there are lots of excellent career opportunities in construction."

Build Up! and Ladders of Learning were developed to create awareness of the industry, said John Feyen, education and training director for the AGC of Greater Milwaukee.

"Those are grade-school programs that AGC developed to try to infuse a little bit of construction awareness even on the elementary level," said Feyen. "It's not so much to bring people into the construction industry, but to keep the curiosity alive."

Feyen said the AGC also is involved with several area high schools - namely Bay View, Milwaukee Tech and Custer.

"At Bay View, we've contributed serious money and intellectual help," Feyen said.

And he's not talking about building knickknack shelves. Students are learning skills they can use no matter what careers they choose.

"In their program, the kids build a house each year."

You get what you pay for

The AFL-CIO, the daddy of all unions, doesn't provide hands-on training opportunities, but it makes sure there's money in the pot to fund education.

"The way we fund our training in the union is each member pays a certain amount per their hourly rate that goes to apprenticeship training," said Nancy Hoffmann, building trades representative for the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

"That's our commitment - and the commitment of people who come in the front door."

Hoffmann said unions provide various levels of training.

"Unions in the building trades are probably best known for their apprenticeship training programs," she said. "After finishing an apprenticeship, if they want to expand into designing or estimating, that's also offered through most local unions."

Some people are more interested in labor-management relations, and in serving as business reps for the unions themselves.

"There's a whole array of that kind of training available to help people do the best job as union leaders."

Unions use conferences, Hoffmann said, to get people together and keep them current on what's happening.

"We have an organizing conference annually, an apprenticeship conference and a legislative conference every two years, and building trades conferences quarterly.

"That's part of our mission - to bring the latest information, technology, what's going on in labor relations, what's going on in the industries that people are working in," Hoffmann said.

Bob Blessington, education director for the state AFL-CIO, helped develop a dislocated worker program in 1993 that may be very busy in coming months.

"It's for people who have lost their jobs because of plant closings or layoffs," Blessington said.

Headed by Geoff Upperton, the program is dubbed Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Labor Education and Training Center.

Blessington, in another initiative, partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and teachers unions in attempting to fill a student education void regarding union history.

"They created a labor history curriculum that is being printed right now and distributed to all the schools throughout the state," Blessington said. "If you were to look at school textbooks, you would find that there is very little written about labor history.

We believe that labor unions have contributed significantly to society, and that story should be told."

Blessington said one copy of the document will be presented to every high school and middle school in Wisconsin. Extra copies will be available through the Department of Public Instruction, he said, at a nominal cost.

"It has a historic focus, but also really gets into the social aspect of unions and what they do," Blessington said.

It's elementary

Joan Braun, executive vice president of the Plumbing and Mechanical Contractors Association of Milwaukee, said the PMC has simple outreach programs for children in the elementary grades.

"We advance our program toward the middle years to become more sophisticated," Braun said. "We purchased elaborate full-sized tool kits of a typical journey worker for each apprenticeship committee - anyone who goes out to the classroom has access to that tool box. It provides the equipment so that there can be a demonstration of a weld and some soldering."

Braun said another important facet facing the industry today is to change preconceived ideas that formal college education is the only viable option facing students making decisions.

"I would urge parents to be open minded about the marvelous opportunities for young people getting into the trades - that they should be encouraged by the fact that they have an individual who likes working with his or her hands," she said.

Kids on the brink of deciding which path to take should be exposed in high school to the opportunities the trades provide. But there's a stigma to overcome, she said.

"Schools are being judged by how many of their high school graduates go on to college," she said. "We have to get rid of that."

Only about 25 percent of our population goes to college, Braun said, and through apprenticeship training there is no limit to what a person can do.

"They can manage or own companies, become teachers, go into union leadership," she said. "And they can move all around the country once they have this training."

Students challenged with the daunting task of paying for a college education might be interested to know that they can earn decent money while learning a trade, she said.

"While they're going to school in our apprenticeship programs, they're getting paid by the employer," Braun said. "They make quite excellent money. So at the end of your five years that are required to get this completed, they have not built up tuition expenses."

Braun said apprentices also have health insurance coverage and can begin a pension program.

In addition to focusing on schools, parents and students, Braun has a message for employers.

"Employers need to take a hard look at the value of training through apprenticeship rather than hiring a journeyman worker," Braun said. "That's one of the ways that we can beat the skilled-worker shortage is to hire individuals who must go through the training program."

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