In the early fall of 1999, the OSAC had just completed it’s 45^th annual conference. The buzz at conference was mostly, we cannot find qualified, skilled workers, as a matter of fact, we cannot find workers period. If we had applicants, we could train them, we’ll provide the necessary skills and related classroom instruction, if only they (workers) would exert some effort to show up every day. This theme was obviously not a new one to us nor to you. We had heard it over and over again, especially from the construction industry. We had debuted our newly designed brochures at conference and begun our marketing awareness campaign. But, was this enough?

I got to thinking about this, and wondering what else we could do as a small office of two employees, and an already overburdened staff of federal partners. Perhaps a solution might be to explore other state agency partnerships. I had known of the Civilian Conservation Corps programs and knew a little about what they taught their corps members, and it seemed as though the skills being taught in the CCC camps and the working environment within the CCC might be a perfect fit for a pre-apprenticeship program for the building trades.

I set a meeting with the chief of the CCC, Sally Prouty. We discussed how a pre-apprenticeship program might work. Shortly after this meeting I received word from my national association, that grant money was available for projects to promote apprenticeship. I wrote an outline, convened a meeting with the chief, two camp directors, the Ohio State Building Trades Council, (Gary Schaeffer), Hocking College and the Ohio Operating Engineers. We wrote the grant for a pre-apprenticeship pilot program incorporating one urban, one rural, one residential and one non-residential camp, received the money (which by the way, we were one of only four states nationwide to receive grant money). We are now 3 ½ months into our grant and this pilot has accomplished much more than we had initially thought it would. We asked ten corpsmembers to create a marketing plan and design marketing materials. They have truly embraced this project, by being very creative and very productive. They’ve learned the importance of teamwork, listening to others points of view and making decisions for the benefit of the project. As a result of this project, many have stepped into leadership positions.

In order to ensure that what was being taught in the CCC matched the needs of the building trades apprenticeships, the committee created a curriculum review task force which included Gary Schaeffer, Mark Totman of the Operating Engineers, Noel Lemons, Manager, Miami Valley CCC, Roy Palmer, Ph.D., V.P. Administration and Development Hocking College and Russell Tippett, Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Ecological Sciences, Hocking College . As a result of the dedication of this team to this project, the CCC, for the first time, has a written a core curriculum.

Another major milestone was reached today in a letter I received from Hocking College, copy enclosed.

This pilot was designed to be measured and portable. Upon completion of the grant period, we will write an annual report which will include a guide for other organizations and companies to explore the possibilities of pre-apprenticeship and full apprenticeship programs.

The pilot is geared toward the age of corpsmembers, 18-24 year olds, but again is portable in nature and can be adapted to fit any age group. These young people are from a variety of backgrounds including the streets and juvenile detention centers. A large percentage have not graduated from high school and most have no career direction in mind. They also have had no real support from either their home or school environment and some have been given up as lost causes.

One of the corps members we’re currently assisting through this project came into the corps without a high school diploma, no direction and poor attendance records. This is a very capable young man, and within a few months was able to get his GED. His work performance was better than some, but not up to his potential. It became apparent that he had serious drug and alcohol issues. He was given an ultimatum. To stay in the program he must go to counseling and submit to random drug screens. As suspected, his first drug screen was positive for marijuana. The second screen taken a month later was negative and from this point on he became a model corps member. He has set and achieved many of his goals including successfully completing math and blueprint reading courses at Terra Community College in his spare time. On the job he has become a valuable asset, his attendance for the last year has been perfect, he has been promoted twice and currently is a corps leader. This young man is highly motivated and is working diligently to get into an apprenticeship program in heavy equipment operation. He has completely abandoned his former life of drugs, partying and no direction. The pilot partnership established between the agencies and the building trades provides an avenue of opportunity for talented and capable young men and women to enter into an apprenticeship and begin their path to a lifelong career and self-sufficiency.

As you’ve heard from our brief presentations today, apprenticeship fits well into your Business objectives as outlined in the September 27 minutes...it links career opportunities with business needs, does create significant alignment of workforce resources with economic needs, it is a continuous improvement of knowledge, skills and abilities, and it increases business competitiveness leading to economic security of Ohio’s workforce.

Thank you for this opportunity to share a little bit about the pilot program and about our overall apprenticeship system in Ohio. We truly believe that the time-honored apprenticeship system is the best workforce development and training tool available to employers and we ask you to seriously consider apprenticeship programs in your future work as the State’s workforce investment board..

Thank you.