Volunteer Aaron Williams, left, shows Centennial High sophomore Roman Grebelnik the finer points of placing the chain onto the main sprocket of his minibike.

It has no formal affiliation with any trade group, company or organization, but a fabrication and manufacturing class created last year by a pair of retired high school teachers in east Multnomah County is giving students a real-world look at machining, welding and other potential career paths.

Dubbed the minibike club, the class is a joint effort of teachers Mark Watts and Tim Gutfleisch, as well as a handful of parent volunteers. Students who already are taking part in metal shop classes at either Centennial High School or Reynolds High School are eligible for the course, which allows participants to build their own minibike from the ground up. Once up and running, the functional minibikes, each complete with a 3.5 horsepower engine, can be used by the students recreationally.

“I think it’s an important thing that these kids have input into,” said Aaron Williams, a volunteer whose son graduated from Centennial more than 20 years ago. “We used to make electric go-carts here and that program was dying, so it was like, let’s see what else we can do then.”

Two years ago, the switch to gasoline-powered minibikes was made.

Centennial High School sophomore Roman Grebelnik uses a grinder while working on the frame of a minibike he built as part of a welding and fabrication night course. (Photos by Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

“Last year we had about 10 kids,” Gutfleisch said. “We combined forces and started making the minibikes and it took us quite a bit longer. This year we got our act together a little bit more, and I think we’re going to do it another year. There are a lot of students who are very interested.”

Students in east Multnomah County suffered from the closure in 2016 of ACE Academy, a charter high school that provided training and education in architecture, construction and other trades. The school was a joint venture between the Centennial, Reynolds and Gresham-Barlow school districts.

Now, more modest efforts are filling in the gaps in the area. The minibike club is just one way of providing automotive and metalworking instruction – something that hasn’t existed at Centennial since the 1980s at least.

“That’s the idea,” Williams said. “The schools have run off the vocational tech classes, so this is what little I can do to have the kids learn real-life stuff.”

Once youths realize they enjoy metalworking, Gutfleisch said, the odds of making a career out of it increase markedly.
“Once they realize they like doing it, they change a hobby into a career,” he said. “That’s our goal, is to get students interested in this more as a career than as a weekend hobby.”

Brothers and Centennial High School students James and Yair Barrera took a fabrication and manufacturing course to improve their metalworking skills and build their own minibikes.

The opportunities are there in the workforce. Oregon right now imports about 30 percent of its welders, even for union jobs that require in-state labor.

“Even with that we’re still hiring 30 percent out of the state,” Gutfleisch said. “It’s one of those things when they talk about increasing the number of products built in the U.S., it sounds good, but if we don’t have the workers, we can’t increase the products they make. It’s great to bring jobs back, but nobody knows how to do them.”

The minibikes created by students are crafted from one-inch steel tubing. Watts explained that while he creates some of the parts from metal tubing, students learn to bend the tubing to specification, and then machine and weld the entire frame together.

Then a Predator two-stroke gasoline engine is installed, and the transmission, brakes and throttle are hooked up. Students are even required to sew together the upholstery for the seats, as well as powder-coat the frames in the color of their choosing.

As a result, students get valuable lessons in a host of skill areas.

“It’s an evening thing for our metal shop students,” Watts said. “And when they’re done they get a minibike out of it. For $200 they have an old-school minibike with brakes and everything. That’s the motivation – to say they have a minibike.”
It’s also competitive.

“I was the first to finish my bike,” Centennial sophomore Roman Grebelnik said during a spring session as he watched his friend and fellow student, Dennis Cherchenko, give his bike a test ride around a rainy school parking lot.

That came after Grebelnik discovered he would have to grind off the edge of a bracket that had been impacting the drive chain. A few minutes and plenty of sparks later, his minibike was operational again.

While Grebelnik said he has learned plenty from the class about problem-solving, machining and metal inert gas welding, he actually is more interested in software programming as a possible career. Nonetheless, he will take away valuable experience from the course – and, of course, an operational minibike.

“Last year as a freshman, I saw the older kids building minibikes, and I wanted to do it too,” Grebelnik said. “I joined the class last year and I took it again this year just to build a minibike. That’s all I wanted to do. I eventually want to be a programmer, but this is just a hobby for now.”

Reynolds student Josh Blegen said he heard about the course in summer 2017 after chatting with Gutfleisch. It immediately drew his interest and his father’s – Jim Blegen is a motorcycle enthusiast. Eventually, both started attending the weekly sessions.

“I started going to the class, but then he started coming more and got really involved with it too,” Josh Blegen said. “And I learned that he knew a lot more about bikes in general than I thought, so that was good.”
Jim Blegen said they even pursued opportunities to tackle homework.

“We’ve taken it home, we’ve taken it to his uncle’s trailer repair shop, where (Josh) welded it and painted it and did the upholstery work,” Jim Blegen said. “Just watching him put it together and helping oversee it, it’s been fun.”

Josh Blegen said the experience has motivated him to look to welding for a future career. It’s the part of the building process he’s found most agreeable. Getting the engine to work properly – well, that’s another can of worms.

“Probably learning about how the engine and the throttle and how that works,” he said when asked which part of the process was the most difficult. “With the welding and stuff, I like that stuff and I’m alright with it, but with the throttle, he (Jim) helped me a lot with that and I didn’t know he knew so much about it.”

Gutfleisch laments the loss of once-ubiquitous vocational programs at both the middle and high school levels. Despite students’ enthusiasm, he said, they often lack basic knowledge of tools and other fundamentals that used to be taught even prior to high school. That is what he’s working to change, one student at a time.

“A lot of the kids I found don’t even know what a lot of the tools are, much less the skills involved,” he said. “People say you can teach this stuff at college, and it’s true. But what used to happen is the middle schools used to teach what I’m teaching now – and the product and end result was a lot better. Now the colleges are getting kids with a light knowledge compared to where they would be if they had the middle school programs.”

The post Revving Up Interest in Metal Trades first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Though the shortage of skilled workers is continuing to plague the construction industry, the number of potential solutions is expanding.

One is to reach the next generation of youngsters before they’re old enough to safely use power tools, let alone operate heavy machinery.

“I think with the good intention of making college accessible to everybody we unintentionally made trades appear as a lesser path,” said John Hurd, talent acquisition manager for Lakeside Industries, a heavy highway construction firm with asphalt plants in Portland, Hillsboro and Washington state.

A profound culture change is needed, Hurd believes, before the trades are again considered a viable route to building a successful career.

“When you build this concept that you’re only successful if you go to college, even if you’re successful and work at what is traditionally known as a blue-collar trade, maybe you don’t feel proud about it and maybe you don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “That’s why I get back to the fact that we need to give all students options in what they want to do. We need to stop telling them what success is and give them the tools to decide what success is for them.”

That belief is driving an award-winning program run by the Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter. Leaders of the Educator Externship program aim to bring educators from across the state to the metro area to meet with contractors, apprenticeship program officials and others in construction.

This year marks the third year for the program, which wrapped up a two-week-long camp for approximately 75 teachers this summer. They visited jobsites, checked out business offices and spent time with a construction contractor. Participants also toured both union and open-shop apprenticeship program facilities, community colleges and technical universities. The Educator Externship is run in partnership with the Willamette Education Service District (WESD) and gives participants professional development or graduate-level credits.

While educators gain a better picture of the career possibilities available to their students, the challenge is to convey that information effectively.

“Most of the stuff we’re able to do is get kids to trade fairs,” Woodburn High School teacher Mario Garza said. “But we’d like to bring more of that stuff on campus. It’s important for us to expose them to the different pathways that are available so they can make good choices for themselves.”

That’s where AGC and the WESD are looking to fill a gap.

“The reality is if you go to school and want to be a teacher, your pathway is marked,” said Cherie Clark, WESD manager of careers and college. “It’s the pathway they know.”

The lack of exposure to trades in public schools is so profound that even ancillary areas of construction often are overlooked.

“When kids think of construction they don’t think of advertising, accounting, project management or safety,” Clark said. “So what we tried to do with construction is to open that up so they could see the back office part of it.”

The Externship started at the Pacific Northwest College of Construction before teachers split into groups and headed to the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute and the Sheet Metal Institute. P&C Construction President Steve Malany and safety coordinator Rick McMurry then led tours of an R&H Construction project site, an Andersen Construction site and a Bremik Construction site. Yorke & Curtis and Lease Crutcher Lewis business offices were shown, and educators visited specialty contractors as well as highway and roadway contractors. Program participants also stopped at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center, Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. and Andersen Construction offices, as well as colleges that host technical training programs.

McMurry is convinced the industry needs to reach young people well before they finish high school. To that end, he’s taken part in the Educator Externship the past two years and found it a great way of making connections.

“This is where we think the real money is,” he said. “If we can get to the influencers of our kids, teachers and guidance counselors, people who are going to steer that decision a little bit in college or career and open their eyes to the fact there is all this stuff out there. There are lots of individual efforts, but this one seems so far to be the most coordinated effort with the target audience in the room. You don’t get the focused opportunity like this.”

Why is it so important to reach kids before they’re old enough to drive? Because if it doesn’t happen then, Hurd said, there will be a lot of baggage to overcome. That alone has led to the average starting age for an apprentice to rise appreciably.

“It starts fairly young,” Hurd said. “I remember growing up, it was about the fourth grade when I was starting to be told that I was either going to be getting a four-year degree or I was going to be flipping burgers.”

Those kinds of messages sink in, he added. But there’s no reason not to apply the same principles to the trades, he said.
“Our best options right now from what I’ve found is we’ve been doing grassroots efforts,” he said. “We’ve been doing teacher externships like this. We visit schools where we’re going in around the fourth grade and setting up field trips and talking to students about what it is, who we are and what it means to the community.”

Hurd’s entire job revolves around recruiting new talent. In that role he speaks with roughly 6,000 to 10,000 high school students annually and hosts more than 1,000 others at Lakeside Industries’ Northwest Portland asphalt plant.
Others in the industry agree that outreach is needed early on.

“I’ve been saying for the longest time the most important work happens in K-12,” said Bob Strader, president of the Northwest College of Construction. “The more exposure they get to all walks of life the better prepared they will be when they walk through the doors here.”

This year’s Educator Externship cohort is roughly three times the size of last year’s.

“It’s big when they tell you, ‘I didn’t know anything about this stuff,’” Garza said. “It makes you think: Why aren’t we talking more about this in K-12? Why just when they’re juniors or seniors in high school?”

A recent construction workforce study commissioned by Metro and the city of Portland arrived at largely the same conclusions in regard to bringing more women and minorities into the skilled trades.

“I think schools is where it has to happen,” said an apprenticeship coordinator quoted in the report. “The counselors and the teachers have to be educated to know the options available and what it takes to get into those programs. Then they can identify those individuals and direct them accordingly based off their interests.”

That’s exactly right, Hurd said.

“We need to help people understand and be able to follow their own desires,” he said. “That’s part of why we’re in the situation we’re in now, where a college degree has never cost more and it’s never been worth less in the marketplace.”

The post Tools for Success first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Felix Lopez, left, and Alejandro Merida, both carpenters with Wood Mechanix, raise a wall while building a mixed-use apartment building in southeast Portland in June. The shortage of skilled labor continues to be a major cause for concern among contractors, according to the USG Corporation + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index. (Sam Tenney/91��Ƶ file)

Contractors nationwide remain optimistic about the state of the construction industry, according to the USG Corporation + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index.

Released in June, the report for the second quarter of 2018 provides a snapshot of market conditions via a survey of contractors. The main takeaway is that while work backlogs and revenue expectations remain strong, the ongoing shortage of skilled labor is causing increasing concern among general contractors who fear it might erode their ability to carry out projects. This is the fourth straight quarter in which more than 90 percent of contractors surveyed have expressed concern over labor shortages.

“Confidence is solid; we’re happy with where we’re at,” said Brandon Flint, vice president of operations at Aloha-based INLINE Commercial Construction. “We do feel like it’s plateaued a little bit, predominantly because of the workforce shortage. We’re sort of maxed out on the work we can perform.”

The ongoing dearth of skilled tradespeople is having noticeable effects. Wages have risen by as much as a third in some trades, and development of project schedules has become much more challenging for general contractors.

“I don’t think people understand how big of an issue it is,” Flint said.

It appears to be systemic.

“There really isn’t a quick fix out there,” said Mike Salsgiver, executive director of Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter.

The recession forced companies to do more with fewer personnel, Salsgiver added. But eventually demand ramped up significantly.

“It served them well,” he said. “But when the recovery kicked in, we’re now starting to see the outer limits of that. At some point you need to bring more companies on line.”

Further, rising costs of materials, particularly steel, is another area of concern. According to the report, 86 percent of contractors surveyed expect new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to have a “moderate to severe impact” on their business over the next three years. More specifically, 63 percent of respondents said that steel is their top material of concern in this regard.

“It’s unfortunate we’re seeing that kind of dynamic at a time when the economy is doing well,” Salsgiver said. “We’re not supporters of tariffs; they generally do not help the economy and there’s all sorts of data out there to show this.”

A separate analysis of U.S. Department of Labor producer price indexes and employment cost indexes released by the Associated General Contractors of America in May showed that the costs of numerous materials critical to construction have risen significantly during the past year.

“We’re feeling the same impact everyone else is,” Flint said. “The biggest challenge we’re having is subcontractors in particular won’t maintain their pricing longer than about a week, so it’s making it extremely hard to negotiate deals or maintain costs.”

The AGC report shows that steel milled product prices jumped 10.5 percent, fabricated structural metal prices went up 13.1 percent, steel pipe and tube prices rose 13.3 percent and aluminum mill shape prices increased by 17.3 percent. Also, lumber and plywood costs increased 13.9 percent, in part because of tariffs imposed on Canadian soft woods in April 2017.
Finally, the spiraling price of diesel fuel is also getting attention. It rose a whopping 44.5 percent during the past 12 months. Between April and May 2018, the price of diesel rose 8.8 percent.

Overall, the cost of all goods used in construction rose a cumulative 8.8 percent from May 2017 to May 2018.
“The recession left a lot of money washing around,” Salsgiver said. “And when the money started to move, the economy picked up at a pretty white-hot pace, so you would expect to see material prices increase in that context.”

And regardless of tariffs, work backlogs are sitting at an average of 9.3 months; the ideal is 12.7 months, according to the report. Meanwhile, 96 percent of survey respondents have high or moderate confidence in the demand for commercial construction, while 52 percent expect their revenues to increase over the next year.

The post Labor Shortage Means More Jobs for You first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center instructor Torre Sathrum, a former general contractor, leads pre-apprentice students through a lesson in laminates at the Northwest College of Construction. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

Workforce development has become more than a topic of discussion among contractors; it’s now a mantra.

“Everyone is looking for skilled labor and not finding it,” Northwest College of Construction President Bob Strader said.

But nonprofit Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC) Inc. and Rosemary Anderson High School have partnered to make a difference in the situation. They are offering a pre-apprenticeship course to young people ages 17-25, most of whom are minorities and come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Work Opportunity Training classes kicked off at the Northwest College of Construction in Northeast Portland in the spring, and the 12-week program concluded in June. At that point, graduates were able to start work or continue their training in a formal apprenticeship program.

And even though the program just started, contractors from throughout the Portland-metro area already are expressing interest in connecting with the students, according to Torre Sathrum, a POIC instructor.

“We’ve been flooded with inquiries,” he said. “We’ve been overwhelmed.”
For 26-year-old Benson Polytechnic High School graduate and program participant Trayvayae Cason, there is little time to waste.

“I’m the old one in here,” he said with a laugh. “I want to become an electrician. So, first, I’m going to start off here and work my way into a union and their apprenticeship program if I can. I could also do carpentry or HVAC.”

Cason said many of the men in his extended family have taken jobs in skilled trades. And at Benson, known for its construction course and other vocational programs, he developed an interest in trades that survived having two children and a stint in California before a return to the Northwest.

“When you enjoy learning it’s the best thing to do,” he said. “You can learn how to build your own house or whatever structure you want. It’s always good to have something to pass on to your children.”

A training program evolves
The POIC is an affiliate of the national Opportunities Industrialization Center of America, which was founded in 1958 in Philadelphia to help young black men and women obtain employment training and work opportunities. The Portland affiliate was established for the same purpose a decade later, and currently serves more than 700 students and work trainees each year.

Three programs are offered to young adults (up to age 25) in Portland: Rosemary Anderson High School, for those in need of a diploma; POIC Work Opportunity Training, for those in need of career training; and Rosemary Anderson Transitions, for graduates in post-secondary education in need of mentorship and support.

“Our focus has shifted over the years toward youth,” said Lanya McClintock, director of employment and training for the POIC. “We work with students who have not had success in traditional high schools. And we’ve always had a focus on employment and training.”

In addition to the new pre-apprentice program, the POIC also offers family services, young parent education, street-level gang outreach and other initiatives geared to help people in poverty.

“For a while we have wanted to train youth for a specific career path,” McClintock said. “There’s such a need in Portland to fill these construction jobs, and especially with young people of color and women, that’s really where this came from. The wages and opportunities are so great in the trades and construction, it’s really a pathway out of poverty.”

Expectations and experience
During the program, the 10 students visited a new POIC space. Remodeling is under way in the former home of a Gresham Police gang outreach office at the corner of Southeast 187th Avenue and Stark Street. Located in the heart of Rockwood, in east Multnomah County, the new space will give the POIC a seat in the Rockwood Rising development poised to rise soon. It’s a central location that likely will attract additional job seekers. The site visit gave the students a glimpse at what construction is like in the real world.

Sathrum said students, who must pass an application process, must be at work or in the classroom by 6:30 a.m. each morning. Attendance is compulsory, just like an employer would demand. And students are expected to adhere to industry safety standards and regulations while they work.

Each student gets a paycheck during the entirety of the course, along with the skills needed to step into an apprenticeship either via another training course or with a company looking to fill a labor gap.

“It’s like a real job for them,” Sathrum said.

Sathrum knows full well the value of pre-apprentice and apprentice programs like those offered at the Northwest College of Construction. He’s worked as a general contractor as well as an instructor. And in the latter role, he said, he has often seen students quickly succeed in construction after completing their training.

“A lot of those guys come back here and the first year they’re driving new trucks,” Sathrum said. “And then the second year they’re looking to buy a house.”

Opportunities are out there
There is an increasing emphasis on getting minorities and women into apprenticeship programs and jobs in the field, in part because of increasingly rigorous public project workforce requirements.

For instance, subcontractors working on the ongoing Multnomah County Courthouse project are required to employ at least 20 percent minorities and 6 percent women on the job. And that’s among the journeymen working; for apprentices, the numbers are even more aggressive: at least 20 percent minorities and 25 percent women, said Justin Paterson, a project manager with Hoffman Construction.

“There’s this message out there and that is: ‘Get out there and get women and people of color into trades,’” he said. “It’s a big systemic issue we’re not going to solve completely on this project. But more and more, people recognize it. Public agencies like the county are pushing for it, and we’ll push the needle on projects like this.”

Strader agreed, saying construction in the public sector is what is driving students to the Northwest College of Construction.

“The demand generator is the U.S. government,” he said. “A third of everything that’s built is owned by the public, and the public agencies require prevailing wage; they require 20 or more percent of the hours on a job be dedicated to training. That’s what creates the demand, and that’s what has me in business.”

Some contractors working entirely in the private sector still send students to training schools like the PNCC. But that represents a “small minority” of the industry, Strader said.

“There are contractors that don’t perform public works that still send their students,” he said. “But it’s based on getting their people skilled up, not based on public works.”

Outreach to young adults
Money for POIC’s pre-apprentice program comes from Worksystems, a Portland nonprofit that focuses on workforce development. Worksystems receives money from local, state and federal governments and distributes it to workforce development programs around the region.

Further, Metro and Mortenson Construction have chipped in to help develop the program so that it would be able to complete the Bureau of Labor and Industries pre-apprenticeship program certification process.

This allowed POIC students like 23-year-old Jennifer Geisler, who commuted daily from Kelso, Wash., a chance to achieve something meaningful. Geisler said she enjoyed the experience and it was interesting being the only girl there. “The first day it was (intimidating), but after I got to know everyone I was like, ‘This is fine.’”

Unlike her twin sister, Geisler added, she had to navigate through a number of life obstacles before finding herself responding earlier this year to an online ad for the POIC program.

“I’ve had a few bumps in the road,” she said, admitting to a yearlong stint in a juvenile facility as a teenager. “Now I’m just trying really hard to find somewhere that I’m comfortable. I’m trying to stick with something. I don’t even care what type of job it is, if it’s going to make me money and pay my bills I’m going to stick with it.”

The post A training program begins to build first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Justin Paterson, right, a Hoffman Construction project manager, speaks about his firm’s role in the Multnomah County Courthouse project, as Benson Polytechnic High School career counselor Peggy Schoettle listens, during the annual Industry for a Day event. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

Workforce development has become a mantra in and around the building industry. It stems from an ongoing shortage of skilled workers in virtually every trade imaginable. Combine that with the red-hot Portland construction market, and it’s a recipe for even bigger issues down the road if left uncorrected.

That’s where events like , held last week, come into play. Portland nonprofit started the event as a broad strategy to help local educators guide young people into the many opportunities in the trades.

“The goal for today is to gain hands-on experience in these construction and manufacturing jobs so you can become a stronger advocate for our students and make them aware of those options,” Emi Donis, an All Hands Raised board member, told more than 200 educators last week. “You can help them gain the tools to help them with what they’re going to do after school.”

Industry for a Day is a collaboration involving All Hands Raised, East Metro STEAM Partnership, Impact NW, Portland Metro STEM Partnership and Worksystems Inc. The third annual event was held April 26 at the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute facility in Northeast Portland and at the job sites or factories of 38 participating construction and manufacturing partners such as Hoffman Construction and Boeing.

Following a large breakfast session, smaller groups of educators broke off from the main event to visit job sites around the region. Regardless of size or trade, all participating businesses have one crucial thing in common: they can’t find enough skilled employees to fill all their positions.

“We have an older workforce out there; you see it reflected in a lot of places,” said Hoffman Construction project manager Justin Paterson, who led a tour of the Multnomah County Courthouse project site in downtown Portland. “There are lots of reasons to get the workforce addressing those issues, not the least of which is a lot of people are ready to retire.”

Contractors have even taken to trying to lure retirees back to work, he added.

“It’s almost an insatiable need right now,” he said.

It’s not likely to change either. The Oregon Employment Department estimates that more than 30,000 construction and manufacturing jobs will be added in the Portland area over the next decade. This comes on top of an anticipated wave of retirements by baby boomers.

Making things worse is an ongoing lack of vocational and technical education in public schools. This has been the case for two generations as schools have focused on the college pathway at the expense of the trades. The result is that jobs sit unfilled as contractors scramble to find needed labor.

Groups like All Hands Raised are left to step up and provide pathways for young people. Even with professional training centers such as the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute running full tilt to turn out apprentices, demand is not being met.

“With the stigma, and the lack of awareness among professional educators who don’t know about this pathway, out of no fault of their own, they just don’t know it,” said Nate Waas Shull, vice president of partnerships for All Hands Raised. “The old perception of dirty jobs is still a problem. Even jobs that are still dirty, but also pay $100,000 a year, we still need to do them. So that’s what this mission is about.”

Hoffman Construction is the general contractor for the $315 million Multnomah County Courthouse project. Now 18 months into the four-year construction timeline, plenty of time remains for apprentices like Benjamin Gilmore, 20, to get a piece of the work. He is pursuing journeyman status with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 48 at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center in Northeast Portland.

Benjamin Gilmore is working as an apprentice electrician for Dynalectric while also attending classes at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

Gilmore attended Benson Polytechnic High School, which offers a construction course. This, he told the Industry for a Day breakfast session attendees, gave him enough knowledge of the trades to spark a desire to pursue a career as an electrician.

Now, just two years out of high school, Gilmore is already earning a solid living and has an internship with Precision Castparts under his belt.

“It’s something that’s right out of the gate, you’re already making money and it’s something you can build on,” Gilmore said. “It’s a straight shot to having a successful life and a successful career.”

That’s why companies like Hoffman Construction work with groups like All Hands Raised, Portland YouthBuilders, Constructing Hope, Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. and many more to offer pre-apprenticeship programs for budding carpenters, glaziers, welders and other skilled workers.

“It definitely can be lifesaving; they can definitely turn your life around,” said Rosa Gomez, who is currently an apprentice carpenter training at the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute.

Gomez, while working mainly for Andersen Construction over the past year, has climbed the ladder to a job paying $24 an hour.

“Especially if you come from a background where your family has always worked in low-paying jobs, you can actually help out your family,” she said.

Industry for a Day Host Companies:

Boeing Portland

Cascade Controls

Charter Mechanical

Daimler Trucks North America

EC Electric

Fortis Construction Inc.

General Sheet Metal

GrovTec US Inc.

Hoffman Construction

Imperial Brown

Integrated Metals: Machine Tool Technology at Mt. Hood Community College

Integrated Metals: Welding Technology at Mt. Hood Community College

KCR Manufacturing

LiUNA! Local 737

Madden Fabrication

McKenna Metal LLC

Microchip Technology Inc.

NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center

Northwest College of Construction

Nu-Tech Machining Inc.

ON Semiconductor

O’Neill Construction Group

Oregon & SW Washington Mason Trades JATC

Owens

Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute

Pacific Northwest Ironworkers Local #29 Training Center

Pella Corporation – Portland operations

Portland Community College – Swan Island Trades Center

Portland General Electric

PCC Structurals Inc.

Premier Press

Skanska USA Building

Streimer Sheet Metal Works Inc.

TCM Corp.

Teeny Foods Corp.

Turner Construction

Wright Business Graphics

The post Another bid to boost workforce development first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Felix Lopez, left, and Alejandro Merida, both carpenters with Wood Mechanix, raise a wall while building a mixed-use apartment building in southeast Portland last month. The shortage of skilled labor continues to be a major cause for concern among contractors, according to the USG Corporation + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index. (Sam Tenney/91��Ƶ file)

Contractors nationwide remain optimistic about the state of the construction industry, according to the most recent USG Corporation + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index.

Released June 5, the report for the second quarter of 2018 provides a snapshot of market conditions via a survey of contractors. The main takeaway is that while work backlogs and revenue expectations remain strong, the ongoing shortage of skilled labor is causing increasing concern among general contractors who fear it might erode their ability to carry out projects. This is the fourth straight quarter in which more than 90 percent of contractors surveyed have expressed concern over labor shortages.

“Confidence is solid; we’re happy with where we’re at,” said Brandon Flint, vice president of operations at Aloha-based INLINE Commercial Construction. “We do feel like it’s plateaued a little bit, predominantly because of the workforce shortage. We’re sort of maxed out on the work we can perform.”

The ongoing dearth of skilled tradespeople is having noticeable effects. Wages have risen by as much as a third in some trades, and development of project schedules has become much more challenging for general contractors.

“I don’t think people understand how big of an issue it is,” Flint said.

It appears to be systemic.

“There really isn’t a quick fix out there,” said Mike Salsgiver, executive director of Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter.

The recession forced companies to do more with fewer personnel, Salsgiver added. But eventually demand ramped up significantly.

“It served them well,” he said. “But when the recovery kicked in, we’re now starting to see the outer limits of that. At some point you need to bring more companies on line.”

Further, rising costs of materials, particularly steel, is another area of concern. According to the report, 86 percent of contractors surveyed expect new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to have a “moderate to severe impact” on their business over the next three years. More specifically, 63 percent of respondents said that steel is their top material of concern in this regard.

“It’s unfortunate we’re seeing that kind of dynamic at a time when the economy is doing well,” Salsgiver said. “We’re not supporters of tariffs; they generally do not help the economy and there’s all sorts of data out there to show this.”

A separate analysis of U.S. Department of Labor producer price indexes and employment cost indexes released by the Associated General Contractors of America last month showed that the costs of numerous materials critical to construction have risen significantly over the past year.

“We’re feeling the same impact everyone else is,” Flint said. “The biggest challenge we’re having is subcontractors in particular won’t maintain their pricing longer than about a week, so it’s making it extremely hard to negotiate deals or maintain costs.”

The AGC report shows that steel milled product prices jumped 10.5 percent, fabricated structural metal prices went up 13.1 percent, steel pipe and tube prices rose 13.3 percent and aluminum mill shape prices increased by 17.3 percent. Also, lumber and plywood costs increased 13.9 percent, in part because of tariffs imposed on Canadian soft woods in April 2017.

Finally, the spiraling price of diesel fuel is also getting attention. It rose a whopping 44.5 percent over the last 12 months. Between April and May 2018, the price of diesel rose 8.8 percent.

Overall, the cost of all goods used in construction rose a cumulative 8.8 percent from May 2017 to May 2018.

“The recession left a lot of money washing around,” Salsgiver said. “And when the money started to move, the economy picked up at a pretty white-hot pace, so you would expect to see material prices increase in that context.”

And regardless of tariffs, work backlogs are sitting at an average of 9.3 months; the ideal is 12.7 months, according to the report. Meanwhile, 96 percent of survey respondents have high or moderate confidence in the demand for commercial construction, while 52 percent expect their revenues to increase over the next year.

The post Labor shortage clouds contractor confidence first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Brianna “Brie” Joseph, foreground, participates in a physical fitness session during Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.’s latest Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class. After attending for just a few weeks, Joseph now envisions a career in sheet metal. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

When Sadie Wood found herself down to just one or two days of work a week after trying numerous jobs, she had finally had enough. There had to be another way forward and a better way to live, she thought.

A good friend suggested Wood try construction and the skilled trades. Her friend even told her where she could start: Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.

“I was struggling with my income and my work was really slow,” recounted Wood, 35, who lives in Gresham with her two daughters, ages 10 and 8. “Just a couple of months before this class started, a friend of mine who is amazing told me about it. She mentioned it to me and it was right what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it. I was ready.”

Wood signed up for OTI’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC), which is offered quarterly through the program. Participants are introduced to numerous construction trades like welding, sheet metal fabrication, carpentry, plumbing, concrete and more.

“Every single person that is in our program is there because they’re making a major life change,” Pathways to Success manager Abby Bandurraga said. “Whatever it might be, there are so many different reasons. But, really, it’s not just a job; they’re changing their life in some way or they want something different for themselves, so I’d say that’s a huge motivator both in terms of how they do in class here as well as when they leave here.”

The most recent TACC started July 10 and runs through the end of August. Over the course of eight weeks, lives change, preconceptions about the trades melt away and those who graduate – over 1,200 women since the program’s inception in 2004 – are poised to begin a new chapter in 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. In the first part of a three-part series, students and industry insiders speak about why they believe the TACC is a vital piece of the workforce development puzzle.

The attraction of training

John Hurd is the talent acquisition manager for Lakeside Industries, a heavy highway contractor with asphalt plants scattered around the Portland-metro area. Pre-apprenticeship programs like the one offered by OTI are popular, he said, because of how they prepare motivated students to enter the industry.

“These are folks who typically have gone out into the workforce, have held jobs that are not high-paying, don’t come with benefits, are not what they really want,” he said. “They feel disengaged, dissatisfied with what they’re doing and they’re looking to make a change.”

Pre-apprenticeship programs, Hurd continued, allow participants to brush up on their math skills, improve their physical fitness, become familiar with tools and acquire other knowledge essential in construction.

“It gives them exposure to a wide variety of trades so they can make an educated choice on what they want to do,” he said. “So, yeah, pre-apprenticeships are great because these are people who are investing in this career path.”

Like Wood, many of the students in this class are in their 30s or older. That’s typical for the TACC, Bandurraga said.

“There is a certain level of motivation because of the type of students,” she said. “They bring that attitude when they go out to apprenticeships or into careers. But we also teach them very industry-specific soft skills. We do that while educating them all the way, and it is a different caliber of entry-level worker.”

Wood’s biggest motivators are her daughters.

Sadie Wood works out during a required physical fitness session in Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.’s latest pre-apprenticeship course. Wood, a single mother, is interested in pursuing a career in ornamental sheet metal. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

“I’m a single mother, and I want them to know as women they can support themselves doing whatever they want to do,” she said. “Honestly, it wasn’t really until last week that I realized – you know how they say you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it? I’m realizing that’s true. I’m capable of this and I want them to know it. I’m tired of living and barely making it and living off my family. I’d like to take care of my parents when they need it; that’s always been something I’ve wanted to do.”

Brianna “Brie” Joseph, 28, is also a TACC student. She left Pasadena, California, a decade ago to attend the University of Oregon and play varsity soccer. Once her stint as a Duck finished, however, she encountered difficulty forging ahead with a career. She was stuck serving burgers until recently.

“You know how life goes,” she said. “You just keep working.”

Then one of Joseph’s friends mentioned the possibility of signing up for the TACC. As Joseph pondered the idea, something clicked when she saw an ad for OTI on the side of a MAX light-rail train.

“I saw the lady in the hard hat and I thought, I can definitely see myself doing it,” Joseph said.

Word of mouth, Bandurraga said, is responsible for well over 50 percent of the students in any given TACC cohort. Others are referred from WorkSource Oregon and some even come from Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville.

A peek at potential careers

In the third week of the course, students really start to dive into the nuts and bolts of the various trades. The strict schedule follows industry standards for punctuality, safety drug testing and more.

“The beauty of the third week is you start seeing it coalesce into a group of trades workers,” Bandurraga said. “The first week they’re all wide-eyed, and the second week they’re a little more comfortable. And by the third week they realize, ‘OK, this is a community that’s here for me.’”

It’s also the point where preconceptions start to melt away and future paths become visible. For example, Wood’s initial interest in becoming an ironworker or carpenter quickly changed as she learned about new concepts. She calls herself an artist who loves to paint, so a recent visit to Portland’s Sheet Metal Institute and Local Union 16 was pivotal.

“I was like what can I do?” she said. “I talked to a carpenter and asked, ‘Would I do the same thing over and over?’ And I don’t want to do the same thing over and over. So when I found out sheet metal has a variety of stuff to do, I was like, I’m in.”

Joseph, too, is attracted to sheet metal work. She wishes only that she had been presented the possibility of a career in the trades sooner.

“If you start introducing people to trades in high school it’ll free up their mind to actually pursue what they’re passionate about,” she said.

Editor’s note: In the next story, scheduled to appear Aug. 20 in the 91��Ƶ, Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. officials will speak about the skills being taught and how they prepare students for careers in the trades. Industry professionals will add how contractors benefit by hiring pre-apprenticeship graduates.

The post Rejuvenating lives, reinforcing an industry first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Apprentice ironworkers Jess Ross, foreground, and Christian Garcia, install a ledger last spring while working on the Grant High School modernization project. A recent study commissioned by Metro found a need for improvement in the numbers of women and minority participation in the building industry. (Sam Tenney/91��Ƶ file)

A recent workforce study  focusing on the construction industry produced results that show women and minorities still have much room for improvement in terms of participation.

The Metro Portland was commissioned by Metro and carried out by a team of industry professionals, academics, economists and many others over the past year. Results show that a concerted, collaborative, regionally organized effort is necessary to make substantial headway toward greater percentages of women and people of color participating in the trades.

There’s a lot of interest in increasing the number of women and people of color in construction, said report project manager Kelly Haines of Worksystems Inc.

“The chart at the very end of the report is illustrative that it really is going to take everybody,” she said. “Public agencies do play a role, and the culture needs to change among contractors and how people feel when they go to work every day. So it’s going to be a collective effort at the regional level to really move the needle. There’s not really a simple answer.”

Tiffany Thompson is the director of advocacy for Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., one of the report’s collaborating organizations. Companies, unions and contractors should not be left to their own devices in this regard, she said.

“We think that it’s better where there’s a collective fund and a regional effort toward recruitment – rather than leaving it to the individual,” she said.

Workforce retention is also highlighted in the report, which states that a concerted effort must be made before women and minority tradespeople are able to operate in a workplace culture in which they do not feel discriminated against.

The report, released earlier this month, shows that women account for just 4 percent of the roughly 23,000 workers in Oregon’s construction industry. Of that 23,000, 20 percent are minorities – mostly Hispanics; blacks and Asians remain underrepresented in the trades, according to findings.

The team examined 81 public-sector building projects scheduled for construction between 2017 and 2021 in order to determine the percentages of women and minorities working in the trades. Some of the projects have stated apprentice and workforce diversity goals – typically 20 percent apprentices, 25 percent minorities and 14 percent women. Those goals, if applied across all 81 projects, puts five-year workforce demand at 2,700 new apprentices, 3,400 minorities and 1,900 women.

Portland’s 2016 employment statistics, however, show that without improvement, the industry would fall short by 445 apprentices, 1,074 minorities and 1,416 women over the next five years.

Bree Smith, a journeyman ironworker with Local 29 and employee of Raimore Construction, guides a beam into place while erecting steel last year on the Knight Cancer Research Building. A recent Metro report on diversity in the building industry found that women and minorities tend to receive lesser training and mentorship opportunites. (Sam Tenney/91��Ƶ file)

When it comes to women in the industry nationally, U.S. Department of Labor figures show that the effects of the Great Recession continue to linger; the total number of women employed in all facets of construction in 2016 was 939,000. However, that is 140,000 fewer than in 2005. The number of women in “production occupations” is barely 200,000 nationally.

“I think one of the challenges,” Thompson said, “is figuring out in the longer term how to get a high enough percentage of women in the workforce to weather those things.”

When it comes to recruiting people of color and women into the trades, one of the biggest barriers identified by the report is the lack of information available to youth about the many and varied career prospects in construction. It recommends an effort, likely beginning at the state level by the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), to inform educators and students within the public school system of the industry opportunities available to young people.

Further, existing apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs should be better funded, preferably at the state level, so they can continue to grow, the report states.

“To not know there’s this alternative means you get into school debt,” Haines said. “What we’re hearing from both contractors and apprenticeship programs is that they want better marketing. They want people to know about them.”

And when it comes to worker retention, the report notes that a history of overt racist and sexist policies in the trades has allowed persistence of jobsite cultures that adversely affect women and minorities. Further, women and minorities also tend to receive fewer training and mentorship opportunities, and the unsteady flow of work in construction often impacts them the hardest because they frequently lack of social support structures, according to the report.

Despite the challenges involved, Thompson and others who crafted the study are hopeful that efforts now under way will lead to meaningful changes.

“There are all kinds of things that give me hope,” she said. “We’re seeing a shift in the industry, and our partners in the construction industry are reaching out to us and saying, ‘We want more women.’ And I think there’s a lot more conversation in construction, not just because of the #MeToo movement, but in the industry in general about how do we retain women and how do we keep a respectful workplace.”

The post The challenge of building up diversity first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Bob Strader, president of the Northwest College of Construction, speaks with educators about one of its wood shops during a recent event as part of the Educator Externship program. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

Though the shortage of skilled workers is continuing to plague the construction industry, the number of potential solutions is expanding.

One is to reach the next generation of youngsters before they’re old enough to safely use power tools, let alone operate heavy machinery.

“I think with the good intention of making college accessible to everybody we unintentionally made trades appear as a lesser path,” said John Hurd, talent acquisition manager for Lakeside Industries, a heavy highway construction firm with asphalt plants in Portland, Hillsboro and Washington state.

A profound culture change is needed, Hurd believes, before the trades are again considered a viable route to building a successful career.

“When you build this concept that you’re only successful if you go to college, even if you’re successful and work at what is traditionally known as a blue-collar trade, maybe you don’t feel proud about it and maybe you don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “That’s why I get back to the fact that we need to give all students options in what they want to do. We need to stop telling them what success is and give them the tools to decide what success is for them.”

That belief is driving an award-winning program . Leaders of the aim to bring educators from across the state to the metro area to meet with contractors, apprenticeship program officials and others in construction.

2018 marks the third year for the program, which recently wrapped up a two week long camp for approximately 75 teachers. They visited jobsites, checked out business offices and spent time with a construction contractor. Participants also toured both union and open-shop apprenticeship program facilities, community colleges and technical universities. The Educator Externship is run in partnership with the Willamette Education Service District (WESD) and gives participants professional development or graduate-level credits.

While educators gain a better picture of the career possibilities available to their students, the challenge is to convey that information effectively.

“Most of the stuff we’re able to do is get kids to trade fairs,” Woodburn High School teacher Mario Garza said. “But we’d like to bring more of that stuff on campus. It’s important for us to expose them to the different pathways that are available so they can make good choices for themselves.”

That’s where AGC and the WESD are looking to fill a gap.

“The reality is if you go to school and want to be a teacher, your pathway is marked,” said Cherie Clark, WESD manager of careers and college. “It’s the pathway they know.”

The lack of exposure to trades in public schools is so profound that even ancillary areas of construction often are overlooked.

“When kids think of construction they don’t think of advertising, accounting, project management or safety,” Clark said. “So what we tried to do with construction is to open that up so they could see the back office part of it.”

The Externship started July 16, at the Pacific Northwest College of Construction before teachers split into groups and headed to the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute and the Sheet Metal Institute. P&C Construction President Steve Malany and safety coordinator Rick McMurry then led tours of an R&H Construction project site, an Andersen Construction site and a Bremik Construction site. Yorke & Curtis and Lease Crutcher Lewis business offices were shown, and educators visited specialty contractors as well as highway and roadway contractors. Program participants also stopped at the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center, Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. and Andersen Construction offices, as well as colleges that host technical training programs.

McMurry is convinced the industry needs to reach young people well before they finish high school. To that end, he’s taken part in the Educator Externship the past two years and found it a great way of making connections.

“This is where we think the real money is,” he said. “If we can get to the influencers of our kids, teachers and guidance counselors, people who are going to steer that decision a little bit in college or career and open their eyes to the fact there is all this stuff out there. There are lots of individual efforts, but this one seems so far to be the most coordinated effort with the target audience in the room. You don’t get the focused opportunity like this.”

John Hurd, talent acquisition manager for Lakeside Industries, explains the inner workings of its North Portland asphalt plant during a recent event designed to reach educators. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

Why is it so important to reach kids before they’re old enough to drive? Because if it doesn’t happen then, Hurd said, there will be a lot of baggage to overcome. That alone has led to the average starting age for an apprentice to rise appreciably.

“It starts fairly young,” Hurd said. “I remember growing up, it was about the fourth grade when I was starting to be told that I was either going to be getting a four-year degree or I was going to be flipping burgers.”

Those kinds of messages sink in, he added. But there’s no reason not to apply the same principles to the trades, he said.

“Our best options right now from what I’ve found is we’ve been doing grassroots efforts,” he said. “We’ve been doing teacher externships like this. We visit schools where we’re going in around the fourth grade and setting up field trips and talking to students about what it is, who we are and what it means to the community.”

Hurd’s entire job revolves around recruiting new talent. In that role he speaks with roughly 6,000 to 10,000 high school students annually and hosts more than 1,000 others at Lakeside Industries’ Northwest Portland asphalt plant.

Others in the industry agree that outreach is needed early on.

“I’ve been saying for the longest time the most important work happens in K-12,” said Bob Strader, president of the Northwest College of Construction. “The more exposure they get to all walks of life the better prepared they will be when they walk through the doors here.”

This year’s Educator Externship cohort is roughly three times the size of last year’s.

“It’s big when they tell you, ‘I didn’t know anything about this stuff,’” Garza said. “It makes you think: Why aren’t we talking more about this in K-12? Why just when they’re juniors or seniors in high school?”

A recent commissioned by Metro and the city of Portland arrived at largely the same conclusions in regard to bringing more women and minorities into the skilled trades.

“I think schools is where it has to happen,” said an apprenticeship coordinator quoted in the report. “The counselors and the teachers have to be educated to know the options available and what it takes to get into those programs. Then they can identify those individuals and direct them accordingly based off their interests.”

That’s exactly right, Hurd said.

“We need to help people understand and be able to follow their own desires,” he said. “That’s part of why we’re in the situation we’re in now, where a college degree has never cost more and it’s never been worth less in the marketplace.”

The post Workforce development starts early first appeared on Skilled Magazine.

Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. carpentry instructor Mercy Sammah, foreground, helps fellow instructor Sarah Moore frame a tiny house at Dignity Village in Northeast Portland. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

Pre-apprenticeship programs serving the construction industry in the Portland-metro area continue to be popular.

And it’s clear why.

Contractors, unions and other stakeholders know that graduates of such programs – including Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) – are more likely than others to thrive in the trades. Retention rates are better for pre-apprenticeship graduates, and they’re better prepared to hit the ground running when they are hired, according to industry officials.

“It’s about bringing in people that are ready to go work, and sometimes that jump from high school to the industry is a difficult one,” said Aida Aranda, director of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 737 Training Center in Northeast Portland. “It’s just being well prepared for coming into the industry. And that’s where I think pre-apprenticeships do have a place.”

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 TACC, which is offered quarterly through the Pathways to Success Program. In the second part of a three-part series, industry insiders and professionals speak about how TACC graduates are better prepared to enter the trades and how contractors are benefiting.

Building skills, connections

Amy James Neel is OTI’s training director and a 25-year construction industry veteran. She previously founded and ran Left Bank Construction, a homebuilding firm. She knows what contractors are looking for, and that is what OTI delivers, she said.

“The reason our graduates are a better hire and why they are more likely to succeed is they know what they are getting into,” she said. “This program is modeled after the expectations of the industry. This is a mini version of what the industry is going to expect of them, and they know exactly what they are signing up for.”

Students in the TACC gain industry-standard soft skills as well as time and opportunity to determine which skilled trade is right for them.

“Not only do they have the trade options,” Neel said, “but the big benefit of having gone through (TACC) is that at the end of that eight weeks each student gets to meet with a career counselor and set a path for how to get to an end goal.”

If a student likes pile driving or welding, for example, Neel said, OTI career counselors can rely on deep connections in the industry and send graduates to the appropriate apprentice coordinators.

“Each of them have different requirements,” she said. “So, one of the benefits is that you have access to all that information, and we can directly connect you with what you need to start a career.”

Mercy Sammah graduated from OTI’s pre-apprenticeship program several years ago. Now, she is a carpenter working on residential projects big and small. She also is a carpentry instructor for OTI; last week, she taught students at Dignity Village in Northeast Portland. There, students who plan to focus on a carpentry career are building a pair of tiny houses.

Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. pre-apprenticeship student Bri Pardue helps frame a pair of tiny houses at Dignity Village in Northeast Portland. (Josh Kulla//91��Ƶ)

TACC graduates are definitely better prepared than those without similar training to enter the trades, Sammah said.

“When a student comes here (to a training site), they’re not going to be just hammering all day,” she said. “They’re going to learn to use multiple tools, multiple power tools, multiple hand tools. They get to learn everything about it and I get to teach it to them.”

Watching students gain confidence is Sammah’s favorite part of being an instructor, she said.

“I think they’re extremely employable,” she said. “I know when our students get on the list for apprenticeships they get higher up to the top just by being in this program. And Oregon Tradeswomen has such a good reputation within the trades that they know we’re not going to allow them to use tools improperly; we’re going to show them the right way.”

A different kind of employee

Many people who have experience working with pre-apprenticeship graduates tend to agree that they more often than not are better prepared for the industry.

An apprenticeship is a very different path than college, according to Bridget Quinn, the workforce development coordinator for the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center in Northeast Portland. Pre-apprentices, she said, have a “realistic expectation” of the workplace culture they are entering. Despite IBEW Local 48 being “swamped” with apprenticeship applications, she added, those with completed pre-apprenticeships usually stand out.

“The majority of their time is spent in the field working with other electricians, and it’s not at all a college environment,” Quinn said of the typical apprentice electrician. “The real world is that these contractors are out to make a profit and complete their projects. And there’s very little leniency. Pre-apprenticeships focus on the soft skills, and I think it really gives them a leg up in that regard.”

Leah Thibeau is an administrative assistant at the Pacific Northwest Ironworkers Local 29 Training Center in Northeast Portland. She doesn’t directly train apprentices, but she handles applications and other aspects of hiring and has closely observed which types of applicants tend to succeed as ironworkers.

“Depending on the pre-apprenticeship program, and Oregon Tradeswomen is absolutely one of the best, we usually get really strong candidates from them,” Thibeau said. “It’s people who have been exposed to a variety of apprenticeships and a variety of trades and they make an educated choice compared with people who walk in the door and don’t have that.”

Contractors are no different in their experience.

Portland-based Vigor Industrial is one of the largest marine contractors in the Northwest. Hilary Pickerel, workforce development manager for the firm, said it has routinely hired apprentices for shipbuilding trades directly from OTI and other pre-apprenticeship programs.

“In our experience,” she said, “the women that complete OTI’s pre-apprenticeship programs, with the intent to begin an apprenticeship program, have a high level of commitment to the job and to a career path within the trades. These are exactly the type of employees Vigor wants.”

Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. instructor Elizabeth Bryant helps frame a tiny house being built at Dignity Village in Northeast Portland. Bryant works as a stonemason when she isn’t teaching OTI pre-apprenticeship classes. (Josh Kulla/91��Ƶ)

The company’s connections with OTI and others, Pickerel said, are also helping it overcome a shortage of skilled labor as well as increase workforce diversity.

“Partnering with organizations like OTI helps us fill those gaps,” she said. “Our sense is that because these women enter the trades with understanding as to the work environment and commitment to a career in the trades, they are more likely to stick with it and progress.”

For TACC graduates, it’s about getting into and surviving an apprenticeship, Neel said.

“Bills, child care, travel – all of those are really rough on new apprentices, particularly single mothers,” she said. “And we can help you through that process. That connectivity is something that is critical for marginalized populations of people getting into trades.”

More opportunities and diversity

Aranda, who serves on the Oregon State Apprenticeship and Training Council, said the training being performed by OTI and others is an important service. The Oregon Legislature last year even helped ensure more usage of apprentices when it passed House Bill 2162. It requires contractors handling certain state public improvement projects to employ at least 10 percent apprentices.

“When you look at apprenticeships, it is such a public service,” she said. “You’re training people and using public funds in the construction industry for that training. We’re investing in our youth.”

Meanwhile, OTI is reaching a segment of the population significantly underrepresented in construction. The industry has long employed primarily white men, Neel said. Pre-apprenticeship programs help overcome those barriers and even end up benefiting “legacy” firms dominated by family connections.

“Women and people of color have been locked out of that secret handshake,” she said. “White men don’t have trouble accessing it, but women and people of color do have trouble. So Oregon Tradeswomen doubles that connectivity that traditional workers already have. That’s a huge reason why pre-apprenticeships are important.”

Of course, to get there, individuals first must believe OTI’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class is where to start. Then graduates eventually reap benefits that can be shared by employers.

“If they enter an apprenticeship after our program, they are absolutely ready and committed,” Neel said. “And that’s just not the case with someone who only knows about the industry peripherally.

Editor’s note: In the final story, scheduled to appear Sept. 3 in the 91��Ƶ, Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class graduates will discuss what they’ve learned and how they hope to apply it in the construction industry. OTI officials and builders will explain how employment connections can be made.

The post Better prepared, better motivated, better workers first appeared on Skilled Magazine.