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DECATUR – Zachya Hill was tired of dead-end jobs.

“(For example) factory jobs,” said Hill, 25. “It's good money, but you make more money if you take the time to develop a skill.”

Through a pre-apprenticeship program with the Decatur Building and Construction Trades Council, One Level and Workforce Development, Hill has learned to work with sheet metal and has a job with King-Lar making duct work.

This month, he'll begin an apprenticeship program that will lead to becoming a journeyman sheet metal worker, and once he has that training under his belt, he can go anywhere and find good-paying, fulfilling work.

“Any trade is a good choice, a good decision,” Hill said. “I'd do it a thousand times. This is the most I've ever learned on a job site.”

The purpose of the program, said Josh Sapp, president of the Decatur Trades and Labor Assembly, is to recruit more veterans, women and minorities into the trades. Through a multi-core craft curriculum, participants can get an overview of all the building trades, basic knowledge of labor history and financial literacy, which will help them choose the field best suited to them. Participation gives them a leg up when applying for apprenticeship programs that lead to being a journeyman.

“Another piece of that, when they complete the classroom work, they get work experience that's paid through the grant to go work with union employers to kind of get a feel for what the construction industry is like,” Sapp said. “They go to a job site where they see all the trades, get exposure to all of it, then that gives our contractor a chance to see what kind of worker they are and lets them decide which trade they want to try.”

The Illinois Works bill passed as part of the capital bill by the General Assembly was focused on recruiting people into the trades so they could help with infrastructure upgrades, Sapp said.

“It helps build the local workforce so we don't have to import as many (workers),” he said. “We can grow our own here and give an opportunity to the disadvantaged populations who didn't know building trades were an option, and the skills to succeed.”

Grant funding for the pre-apprenticeship program was secured largely thanks to efforts by state Rep. Sue Scherer and state Sen. Doris Turner, he said.

“I think it will really bolster the workforce in Decatur and Central Illinois,” Turner said. “This is a great time for this. We have a number of opportunities in Decatur where economic development opportunities are opening up.”

Participation in the program, Turner said, can be “life-changing” for young men and women and providing them with the wraparound services, such as guidance in money management, can help them be successful not just in securing a good-paying job, but in life.

“It's a win-win,” she said. “Employers are getting trained craftsmen who understand the importance of their new career and all those skills.”

Jakivin Jenkins' grandmother heard about the program at church and urged him to pursue it. He had worked in construction before and was intrigued by doing the work he'd seen others do on job sites. Now employed by Bodine Electric, he has applied for an electrical apprenticeship and will know if he's been accepted after tests and interviews, which are set for spring 2023. In the meantime, he's learning from watching others at Bodine.

“They've got me with a journeyman, a couple of guys,” said Jenkins, 24. “I help them, I follow them around, they show me whatever they're working on: making conduit, bending pipe, measuring things, showing me the different colors of different wires and everything like that.”

Pre-apprenticeships are offered to young men and women free of charge, said Rocki Wilkerson, executive director of Workforce Investment Solutions.

“The goal is to broaden and strengthen the local workforce and educate participants in the construction industry,” Wilkerson said. “Upon successful completion of training participants will earn a Multi–Craft Core Industry Credential.  This credential is approved by the North Americas Building Trades Unions.  Participants will have the ability to apply to several different trade union apprenticeship programs.”

Another class will be offered toward the end of the year, she said, and information on how to apply will be available this month.

Decatur high schools also encourage students to consider the trades. Ed Walton teaches a building trades class at MacArthur High School. One of his most stringent rules is that showing up on time is “late,” while showing up early is “on time” and being late is “you're fired.” Walton said that's the way it works on real job sites and he wants his students to learn to be responsible, hard workers now, while they're still in school.

“I treat them like adults,” he said. “The construction trades class, the goal is to prepare students to go into the trades. Plumbers, pipefitters, carpenters specifically. We've got a partnership with the carpenters (union) as well as the (Decatur Building and Construction Trades) council. When they're looking for new hires, apprentices, they come here.”

Walton is working with the city of Decatur, Habitat for Humanity and Decatur Public Schools to give his students hands-on experience by refurbishing a house owned by the city. The deal isn't sealed yet, but it will be good experience for the students to learn to update and remodel an existing house, bringing it up to current codes, for a Habitat home. In past years, students have helped build new houses as part of their building trades class experience.

“It's been proposed by the city that, instead of tearing houses down, to take one of those houses that's still in decent shape and can be remodeled, and donate that to Habitat, then my students and volunteers can come in and remodel that house,” Walton said.

He also helps his students find internships where they can get hands-on experience outside of class.

Wyatt Bramer, who wants to be a carpenter, spent the summer as an intern with the Decatur Public Schools' maintenance department and was able to do a little bit of everything, he said.

“I learned a lot,” Wyatt said. “I spent a lot of time with the electricians, like here at MacArthur. I replaced a couple of wall receptacles. I learned a bunch of different stuff with the plumbers. I replaced a couple of toilets and fixed a couple of sinks. And towards the end, I was working at Stevenson (School), they were remodeling it. I was doing a bunch of drywall and there was some carpet work and electrical. I got to do a little bit of everything.”

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

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