Career Tech Is Building Community

With input from active NWOBTC members helping to shape the curriculum, the program ensures students will be career-ready. The school system is so sure of this it has pledged that 10 percent of the workforce on any construction project within the district will be reserved for graduates of the apprenticeship program.

The result? Students are building and maintaining the schools that helped raise them. This works for everyone, says Kevin Dalton, president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers. “Not only is it good for the individual, you’re keeping dollars in the community, you’re keeping people in the community.”

Dalton started this project years ago after he’d attended an AFT convention where he heard labor leaders speak about the need to prepare students for apprenticeships and careers. Not only did career and technical education strike Dalton as a great way to keep kids in school and give them more options upon graduation, it is also a great way to knit schools and industry together.

“A lot of people say we need to stop the brain drain,” says Dalton. “What about the labor drain?” A few years ago, he saw a lot of Ohio construction companies hiring from out of state, employing workers for limited periods of time, then watching those workers take their dollars and spend them back in their home states. That meant less money for local business, the local tax base and ultimately less money for schools and the other public services made possible by a healthy economy.

One of Dalton’s challenges, though, was to help people realize that career tech is not the last alternative — something students choose when they feel they are not “good enough” for a college pathway. Career tech “should be one of the first choices,” says Dalton. College is a great alternative for many, but not for all, and working in the trades can be just as rewarding. “It’s a good living,” says Dalton.

This year, the first cohort of the Apprenticeship Readiness Program will graduate, but Dalton has already seen some successes. That’s because ARP builds on an existing career and tech ed program with a broad array of careers to explore, from agriculture to engineering, education or finance. One graduate started his own company and now does maintenance work around the union offices. Other students have graduated and been accepted in the local apprenticeship programs.

“This is bigger than just coming in here and learning about all these different trades, and all these different skills and paths,” says Keith Dawson, a construction academy teacher at Rogers High School featured in a school district video. “This is about getting ready for credit, finances, raising a family, just becoming a very productive citizen. You’re trying to encourage [students] to look at what’s next in their life.”

One reason the program has been successful is that it met every obstacle encountered. When students and their families resisted the label of “tech ed,” the group trained school counselors to point out the advantages of learning a trade. If a student’s grades were poor, there were targeted courses and tutoring available as much as the individual’s schedule would allow, so kids had a more solid academic foundation from which to work into the trades. When kids couldn’t get to their work sites, administrators helped them get their driver’s licenses, and sometimes even helped them purchase a car.

“The students who are engaged in these programs have better attendance than they would have had [otherwise], they have more people to connect with,” says Dalton. “They have something to look forward to. They’re already having conversations with people in the industry, they’re making those connections.”

Those connections last long past graduation, and long past that first job. Students see their own work out in the community. “Yeah, I helped build that bridge,” Dalton imagines them thinking. “When they know they helped build that library, that school, there’s pride in that.”

This story was written by AFT communications specialist Virginia Myers.

Republished with permission from AFT.