By ERIC SCHMID
9-12-19
EDWARDSVILLE – A new program that gives high school students hands-on experience with the construction trades kicked off this year.
Over two years, juniors and seniors from local high schools will learn to pour concrete, install pipes, construct scaffolding and other aspects of the trades from certified labor instructors through the Illinois Laborers’ and Contractors Joint Apprenticeship and Training Program.
The program started in Marion, Illinois, last year and expanded to Edwardsville after labor leaders saw its success. It’s part of a larger push from local labor organizations to attract younger people to unions.
The average age of construction labor apprentices in downstate Illinois is 37, said Vicky McElroy, the apprenticeship coordinator at the Edwardsville training facility.
“We thought this was a way to get some good students and young people into the trades,” she said.
Sixteen juniors from Edwardsville High School make up this year’s inaugural class. The students go to the training facility for two hours every morning for a mix of classroom training and hands-on courses.
It’s new territory for the training center’s instructors, who are used to older apprentices.
“In some ways it’s a very big advantage,” said Jason Jackson, one of the course instructors. “If I’m teaching them math or labor history or anything like that, I can actually send them home with homework.”
He acknowledges there are challenges, too. One of those is managing a room full of teenagers, he said, and another is fitting hands-on activities, like pouring concrete, into the two-hour course blocks.