This article is one of a series of articles produced by Word in Black through support provided by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Word In Black is a collaborative of 10 Black-owned media outlets across the country.
By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Construction is the number one vocation for those who choose to enter the workforce instead of pursuing college, and Seattle Public Schools is providing a pathway for students to enter the very lucrative construction workforce through their skilled trade pre-apprenticeship program.
According to Jay Connolly, Coordinator of the SPS Pre-Apprentice Program, construction trades provide high pay, no debt career paths with retirement, health care, and equitable wages. Once you are in an apprenticeship training program, you are working on a construction site, learning your trade from skilled professionals, and getting paid.
Started during the 2020-21 school year, with the support of the Department of Labor and Industries, the program is one of just a few high school-based pre-apprenticeships programs in the state that allows students to earn a pre-apprenticeship certificate, and qualify for priority hire status in a variety of trades.
The program provides half-day courses called “graduation pathway courses”, where students attend school for half a school day and can earn career and technical education (CTE), and applied math and science credits while exploring hands-on modules in more than a dozen trades like carpentry, ironwork, cement masons, glaziers, and pipe trades. Students also can earn an associate degree, as well as valuable industry certifications like flagger, first aid/CPR, and forklift, as well as college credits in welding.
“In addition to hitting all the course requirements to graduate, students need to complete what’s called a graduation pathway,” says Connolly. “The most common graduation pathway is passing standardized testing, but that is not the pathway that all students use. Alternatives to that include military entrance exams or running start classes at the college or advanced CTE work.”
Right now, SPS has six schools that provide this essential training and, according to Connolly, these locations can change each year, but this year’s schools are West Seattle, Chief Sealth, Franklin, Ballard, Inter Agency, and the Skill Center.
The program also is designed to make hiring a priority through the Student Community Workforce Agreement (SCWA) and this is not only for the students but it provides opportunities for past SPS students and student family members who presently work in these fields as well.
“I am also our coordinator for the SCWA which is our priority hire program,” says Connolly. “And that is not just for students, that is also for past SPS students, family members working in construction, but anyone who has attended Seattle Public Schools is a priority hire on an SPS project.”