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Industry takes active roll in trade-school curriculumBy Sean Ryan
Daily Reporter Staff
Representatives from every end of the industry have pulled together to create the Lynde and Harry Bradley Technology and Trade School in Milwaukee to refill Wisconsin’s shallow construction labor pool.
“We want to make sure that we have graduates in the school that actually work in the construction trades, and to do that we want to get the industry a bit more aligned with the school than it has been in the past,” said Jack MacDonough, Bradley Technology Commission chairman.
“(The school) will be modernized with much more attention to what the industry wants in its potential employee.”
The $50 million trade high school will cover 280,000 square feet on the current Milwaukee Tech High School site. Milwaukee-based Hunzinger Construction and Clark Construction, Maryland, formed a joint venture to manage the project, scheduled for ground breaking in March 2001.
The school will house 1,440 students in grades nine to 12 and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2002.
The trade-school commission was set up to oversee the project from beginning to end. Its 12 members will represent goals of labor, builders, the city, and public and private schools.
The commission will work to build contractor participation in education to let them assume an active role in bringing more skilled workers into the trades, MacDonough said.
John Goldstein, commission member and Milwaukee County Labor Council president, said there is a surplus of workers to fill unskilled jobs, but that’s not the case for skilled positions. The commission represents a collective effort to help the school tip the scale the other way to turn traditionally unskilled workers into skilled tradesmen, he said.
“We think it’s really important to provide skilled workers for the high end of the labor market,” Goldstein said. “It’s critical to increase educational opportunities for kids to get into those high-end positions.”
MacDonough said the school would highlight the trades and attract minority and female workers to the industry.
“It will draw more attention within all of the Milwaukee public schools to the opportunities that exist in the trades,” he said. “It will create a minority work force by being in the middle of Milwaukee, where the majority of students are minorities. Also, 20 percent of the school will be females, who have been underrepresented in the trades in the past.”
Building the curriculum
The 21st Century Urban Technical Education Project Advisory Committee, which was set up by the Milwaukee Area Technical College, will create a curriculum for the new school. Dale Dulberger, advisory committee project manager, said the committee will involve the industry in building the curriculum to make sure students are prepared to enter the trades.
He said the advisory committee is trying to ensure the school will not only provide more workers but better ones. The curriculum focuses on giving workers a better handle on construction technology.
“The purpose of the curriculum work we are doing is to broaden the scope of what is traditionally thought of as construction,” Dulberger said. “This is the incorporation of technology and seeing construction as a technological field. Our view of technology in construction is not just hammer and nails. It’s much broader in giving people some understanding of the technology systems and technology processes that people need to understand the construction industry.”
The trade-school commission has similar concerns and will ensure the school’s administration keeps in touch with industry associations about work-force needs, Mac-Donough said. The commission will fill its top position for the school in December.
“We’ve created an executive director of the school, and a major portion of that job will be to communicate with organizations and industry groups,” he said. “We will have the key leader of the school tend to making sure that the industries we want to be served by the school are being served.”
Randy Crump, who is coordinating minority participation for the school’s construction, said the building project is only the first step in a long-term partnership between the school and industry.
“I personally expect to have a long-term relationship just because I am an (Milwaukee Tech) alumni,” he said. “The number is abnormal when you consider the number of individuals in this town who have engineering degrees who started in Milwaukee Tech. I know the alumni would support any effort to get them involved.” Mike Fabishak, advisory committee member and Milwaukee Associated General Contractors executive vice president, said the industry would see enormous benefits from its connection with the new school.
“We’re just completely excited about the notion of the Bradley Technology and Trade School,” he said. “We’re trying to put the light back on this industry, and to have a flagship of brick and mortar like Bradley is going to create a very exciting time for this industry in moving forward with work-force development.”
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