Thanks to the IBEW and other members of the Affiliated Construction Trades Ohio Foundation, guidance counselors in the Buckeye State will now have the information they need to present trades apprenticeships as a viable career option on par with four-year colleges and the military.
“We need to educate the educators on the benefits of a construction career path,” Fourth District International Representative Ed Moore said. “Counselors are on the frontlines in the schools, helping students make determinations on their future. By exposing them to our exceptional apprenticeship training centers and providing critical information about our programs, we can create thousands of advocates across Ohio that will point young people our way.”
The training program, developed by ACT Ohio with early help from TradesFutures, part of North America’s Building Trades Unions, is the product of a law passed last year with bipartisan support and signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
“This wasn’t aligned with a D or R political ideology,” said Kitty McConnell, ACT Ohio’s director of marketing, communications and outreach. “It’s just good policy for hardworking tradespeople.”
McConnell said the initiative focuses strictly on workforce development in one of Ohio’s most in-demand occupational segments: construction. In fact, building trades apprenticeship enrollment comprises half of all such enrollments across all industries.
Counselor training is required at a joint labor-management registered training center, and about half have been scheduled at IBEW JATCs, including the first one, hosted by Newark Local 1105 in October. More than 1,500 counselors have registered so far, with about 2,000 expected every year, Moore said.
The training, which applies to counselors who work with students in grades 7-12, consists of four hours of multi-trades curriculum based on TradesFutures’ educational material. Each session begins with an overview of Ohio’s building trades, the current employment market for skilled tradespeople and a mapping of the registered apprenticeship system in the state. The final hour of the session consists of a tour of the training center and a question-and-answer period with instructors and apprentices.
The training at Toledo Local 8 went longer than expected because the counselors had so many good questions, Training Director Glenn Rettig said.
“The counselors liked the Q and A,” Rettig said. “They seemed very interested in the opportunities that our apprentices have. Exposing them to the cost of the training along with the pay and benefits a unionized worker can make was a real eye-opener for them.”
McConnell said Ohio policymakers have long been concerned with providing graduating students with relevant skills and information needed to find careers in the state’s in-demand sectors. They’ve made it a priority to advance apprenticeships, and the counselor training requirement is part of that.
“Union apprenticeships are the best kept secret in the United States,” Fourth District International Vice President Gina Cooper said. “They provide all the training, job placement, good wages and benefits at no cost to the student, allowing them to graduate debt-free with a career in the electrical trades.”
Ohio’s elected leaders also recognize the economic advantage that a skilled construction workforce provides, McConnell said.
“The quality-of-life outcomes that families and communities experience as a result of these middle-class careers and tuition-free apprenticeships are something every elected official can see in their home districts,” she said.
Rettig noted that by educating counselors throughout the state, the pool of potential apprentices will grow.
“Typically, better students are pushed toward four-year degrees, and only vocational students are told about the trades,” Rettig said. “The hope is that all students will get information on what these apprenticeships offer. But counselors can’t give advice on something they’re not exposed to.”
