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Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class graduates, from left, Courtney Newberg, Sadie Wood and Ruby Fjeld share a laugh during their graduation ceremony Wednesday at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

For the women who complete Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.’s eight-week Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class, the experience often is life-changing.

Formerly timid personalities are cast aside, leadership skills are learned and confidence is gained.

“So many different levels of anxiety and fear and different barriers I’ve had through my whole life came up, and I faced them,” said Sadie Wood, a 35-year-old single mother and a new TACC graduate. “And it changed me inside a lot for the better. And now I’m determined; I’ve never been so determined in my entire life.”

Amid a prominent shortage of skilled labor in the construction industry, the 91��Ƶ is taking a closer look at how OTI is making a difference with its Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class, which is offered quarterly through the Pathways to Success Program. In the final part of a three-part series, recent graduates discuss what they’ve learned and how they hope to apply it in the construction industry. And one OTI official explains how graduates can pursue numerous career opportunities in the trades.

Skills create opportunities

Wood has applied to the Sheet Metal Workers International Association Local No. 16 to become an apprentice; she’s awaiting an interview soon at the union hall. It’s an opportunity that she says never would have appeared without the opportunity offered by OTI. New grant money from the Community Childcare Initiative even allowed Wood to attend the course without having to worry about how she would take care of her two daughters.

“I’m grateful I did this because I had no idea I was capable of the things I’ve done,” Wood told her assembled classmates and their supporters Wednesday night during a graduation ceremony at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center. “Using a chop saw was terrifying. But using a torch, I found out I was incredibly in love with metal; I think I didn’t know I liked metal and fire so much.”

Wood and her classmates were introduced to a variety of trades, unions and the very essence of the construction industry and its workplace culture.

And through OTI’s industry contacts it has established over the years, it’s now just as common for contractors to approach the group for leads on possible workers as it is for TACC graduates to try and make those contacts on their own.

“If they go to an apprenticeship, those contractors sign on with the apprenticeship programs and that’s hands off for us,” said Kim Neel, a career counselor for OTI for the past six years. “If not, in some ways they rely on us because we have contractors and employers who are calling us constantly telling us, ‘Hey, we want to hire your graduates.’”

There’s so much demand for TACC graduates that an online job board now lists the work available; all of those postings come from outside contractors.

Some of these recent graduates have already applied for a variety of apprenticeships with union-backed programs. Those connections were made during the initial stages of the TACC as students were given field trips to various training centers and job sites to expose them to as many trades as possible.

Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. pre-apprenticeship student Elizabeth Applegate wires together a light switch during a recent class at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center in Northeast Portland. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

That’s how Courtney Newberg decided she wanted to become an ironworker. The 28-year-old Michigan native said that from the beginning she was instantly attracted to the subculture.

“I looked at different trades and what my personality lends itself best to,” she said. “Ironworkers are tough, gnarly dudes, and there’s something that’s very glamorous about that to me. I’m attracted to being a part of that tough group of people. I did Oregon Tradeswomen with an open mind, but I did the eight weeks and at the end of it that’s still what I want to do.”

Newberg has submitted her apprenticeship application to Ironworkers Local 29, and because she has already completed a pre-apprenticeship program she is eligible for open entry to the union. Now, she’s waiting for her interview and the chance to get to work.

“For me, going in and applying it was the stereotypical people applying – big, strong white men,” she said. “So, I go in there and I’m like, ‘I look different,’ which was intimidating. But I have this extreme confidence because I have an in. I’ve worked my butt off for the chance to get in, so I’ll likely get to work before these guys and that’s super empowering and amazing.”

Different ways into the trades

Of course, not all pre-apprenticeship graduates choose to apply for a union-backed apprenticeship. Some go the open shop route. But one way or another, a solid majority wind up in the trades.

“They’re all a little bit different,” Neel said.

With IBEW Local 48, she said, once applicants are ranked, they attend a boot camp. If they do well, in some cases they can be on the job within the next week. Ironworkers and operators have a similar boot camp, while some contractors run their own version.

“In some apprenticeships, like the sprinkler fitters, you get on with an employer first,” Neel added. “And if they like you, they’ll bind you into the union afterward.”

Because of the myriad ways to enter the workforce, the experience and contacts brought into play by OTI staff are critical to students’ success. And that support certainly doesn’t end with graduation and job placement.

“I’ve been here almost six years and I still hear from people from my first year,” Neel said. “They still come back with questions, with issues, and when there’s something I don’t know, we as a team figure it out.”

Knowing that support will always be there, Neel added, really helps graduates mitigate the difficulties typically found when entering the trades.

Courtney Newberg is congratulated by fellow Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class graduates on Wednesday. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

“As long as they’re out there, they can come back here and they know they can,” she said. “And it gives them confidence knowing we’re here to support them, and I think that is key.”

One issue that remains a problem in recruiting new workers into the trades is simply getting the word out. With the demise of vocational classes in public education, the ways in which people find their way into programs like OTI’s remain a bit random.

Elizabeth Applegate graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in journalism and absolutely no idea of what the skilled trades were all about. More recently, she found herself working at a dog day care facility. It wasn’t fulfilling, she said.

“I literally one night just Googled ‘how to learn how to build a house in Portland Oregon’ and Oregon Tradeswomen popped up,” Applegate said. “I took a look and thought this looks cool and signed up.”

Now, Applegate is planning to apply for entry in the IBEW Local 48 apprenticeship program, along with seven other TACC graduates. One is Uneka James, who previously worked in a chicken processing plant – at times on the facility’s heavy machinery. She found out about the OTI program through her family.

“My sister told me about it, and she said, ‘You might have to do some exercise with it,’” James said with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘Hey, wait a minute now; I don’t know about that.’”

That didn’t keep James from completing the class. She was even tabbed as one of two student speakers at Wednesday’s graduation.

“I went from being scared of math to I’m a math queen now,” James told her classmates. “Being scared to use a Skilsaw? Not anymore. And when you have the wonderful ladies in the program, they’re the most supportive women you could ever have. It inspired us.”

For Wood, the thought of simply being able to buy school clothes for her daughters and eventually take them to Disneyland has been a driving force behind her determination.

“I turned in my application today actually,” she said. “I made the decision this morning and I woke up really nervous, because sometimes we mistake excitement for fear. So, I decided I was just going to be excited about it, and it’s been a really good day.”