Apprenticeship Works!

Apprentices from the Bakersfield Sheet Metal Workers Training Center participated in the US Department of Labor’s National Apprenticeship Week by helping to expose the advantages that apprenticeship have over for-profit technical schools and colleges to Kern County high school students. Speaking in terms of the tuition, student debt, and earning power as one progresses through their education; Apprenticeship programs have a reputation as being a well kept secret among professionals in the construction industry.

Not since the 1980’s has construction been discussed as a viable career option to graduating high school students. Over the past few decades most high school districts have systematically dismantled shop classes, opting instead to concentrate their efforts and resources in favor of getting every senior college bound.

There’s no denying that the strategy has had some unforeseen negative consequences.

According to The Business Insider, student debt in this country has now sky-rocketed above 1.3 Trillion dollars in 2016. The downhill effects of the student-debt crisis adds insult to injury in the list of facts posted by The Huffington Post.

“It’s been a double edged sword” explains Training Coordinator Will Scott of SMART Local Union 105 who runs the sheet metal workers apprenticeship program in Bakersfield California. “The construction industry is projected to have a shortage of skilled workers in the near future as baby boomers in the trades start to retire in large numbers. Whose going to repair the aging infrastructure or build the cities of the future in this country?”

Introducing students to the building trades as a career option is now back on the radar, with the federal government leading the charge. The goal of National Apprenticeship Week is to encourage businesses, educational institutions, and apprenticeship programs to collaborate, strengthen, and expand the creation and use of the successfully proven workforce-development model.

Earn While You Learn!  
Union construction apprenticeship programs are the gold standard, and over 300 high school students got their chance to learn about them during 2 days of workshops organized by the Kern County Community College District (KCCD), the California State Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS), and the Kern County Training Coordinators Association. The first day of the event which was hosted at the apprentice training facility of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 428 (IBEW) in Bakersfield Ca., purposely focused on convincing girls that “a construction career isn’t just for the guys anymore, one of the the biggest benefits of apprenticeship that I try to get them to understand is that its an equal pay for equal work system” say DAS Representative Corinna Pereira who helped organize the event, and is a big advocate for women in the trades (WIT).

When asked by guest speaker John Spalding of the Kern, Inyo-Mono Counties Building Trades Council during the opening ceremony of the event how many girls in attendance were considering construction as a career after high school, only 3 girls raised their hands. Over 100 hands went up when posed by the same question at the end of the closing ceremony of the day.

“We were a big hit” says Will Scott. Apprentices in his program helped the students get a “hands on” experience using some tools and equipment of the sheet metal trade during the event. “They (his apprentices) really stepped up to the plate and worked as a team to explain and show off some of the training that they receive. What better way to get the message across about apprenticeship than to hear it from those who are living it”.