Some in apprenticeship program otherwise may have had difficulty
April 9, 2007
A jobs training program, aimed at creating career paths for some people who otherwise might be deemed unemployable, has begun with promise.
A little more than a month after startup, the Career Skills Training and Placement Program has placed 25 workers into a six-month pre-apprenticeship program under AFL-CIO craftsmen.
The workers get introduced to trades like plumbing, pipefitting, painting, bricklaying and other construction-related jobs. They receive classroom instruction and get the opportunity to earn a high school equivalency degree before entering full internships.
Once a worker enters the five-year apprenticeship program, the worker is paid a percentage of a journeyman's wages that are based on existing union agreements in that area, said union representative David Newell.
Workers are required to attend school two nights a week in addition to working their jobs during the day. Workers who display a good work ethic get a 5 percent raise every six months until they complete the program and become a Building Trade Journeyman, which qualifies them to work anywhere in the U.S. for union wages. In the Jackson area, the designation places workers salaries at $18 or more per hour.
An additional 60 applications await processing for the program, said Newell, a representative of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters and president of the Central Mississippi Building and Construction Trade Council.
The city of Jackson, which helped craft the program, will assist with recruiting applicants and encouraging contractors and developers to hire and help train workers in the program. The benefit is creating more jobs for local citizens, Mayor Frank Melton said.
Jackson City Council members unanimously agreed to support the program. The city provides no funding.
The recruitment aspect creates a more direct route to union-based employment than previously existed with the city, Newell said.
Moses Terrell Smith, 28, of Jackson is less than two years away from completing a five-year apprenticeship program from which he will graduate as a journeyman electrician.
Journeyman electricians in the Jackson area earn $18 per hour and above, Newell said.
Smith, employed with Dulaney Electric, said a jail stint on drug charges had limited his career outlook until union electricians told him about job opportunities and his employer gave him a chance to pursue the career.
Smith also credits Melton with encouraging him to accept the union job. In recent weeks, Smith said, he spoke at a recruitment event on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
"I found a lot of doors that had been closed for me, and (Dulaney) accepted me," Smith said. "As far as liking the work, it's intense. It's an intense program. But if you're a person who likes to work, it's good. It's keeping my bills paid. And I've matured a lot."
Brad Fountain, president of Fountain Construction Co. Inc., in Jackson, which uses union laborers, said the program has the potential to train people for well-paying jobs that are in demand.
"It's good if they will hang with it. The pay is better than the non-union sector. They got some pension, some insurance," Fountain said. "The biggest part for kids with that is sticking with it. They start out on a reduced scale and they get a raise every year. The ones that will complete it will go on to make good wages in the construction trade."
Newell said the training program works well for everybody. With many construction-related projects going on throughout the state, the training program keeps workers in the labor pool so Mississippians can get more of the jobs, said Newell, adding that the program was Melton's initiative.
"We have a recruiting session every two weeks and have about 30 or 40 people to come to this. Were being pretty successful," Newell said.
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