Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Building bridges to workplace

Treva Lind Correspondent

Grants totaling $15,000 will boost a growing pre-apprenticeship program in high schools that offers students exposure to industry jobs, from plumbing to electrical work.

The local grant proposals – led by West Valley and East Valley high schools – were funded in October and will allow the hiring of a coordinator to oversee the program in area high schools and through the Spokane Skills Center.

“We’re going to hire this person to work out of the Skills Center, which is the hub of the pre-apprenticeship program,” said Pat Knowles, West Valley School District’s career and technical education director.

The program allows students to take courses and workshops in high school to become qualified to be apprentices in various trades after graduation.

“The pre-apprenticeship program is so popular and growing so dramatically, the Skills Center can’t book all these pre-apprenticeship classes, so we have a pre-apprenticeship program here at West Valley now,” Knowles said.

Called a “Running Start for the Trades,” eight pre-apprenticeship programs in high schools statewide got the grant from the state Department of Labor and Industries and the Washington State Apprenticeship and Training Council.

West Valley started offering program course work at its high school this year, and with a remodel finishing up next year, students will get to work out of two new high-tech labs, in addition to classes at the Skills Center. EVHS is in the early stages of a pre-apprenticeship program.

This is the third year for Spokane Public Schools’ pre-apprenticeship program in its high schools that offer trade classes: Ferris, North Central, Rogers and Shadle. However, any student from all Spokane Public Schools can participate, said Lisa White, the district’s career and technical education director.

“It’s a very popular program,” White said. “The trademark of this program is we have written agreements clearly articulated with the trades about what they expect our students to know and be able to do at the culmination of the pre-apprenticeship program.”

The program also creates relationships between experienced trades people and students, White added. She gives the example of a trade person coming into a classroom to demonstrate brick masonry, a class not available at schools.

WVHS and EVHS are part of a consortium of area school districts with high school trade programs that includes Spokane Public Schools, Central Valley, Freeman, Deer Park, Riverside, Mead and Cheney.

Spokane has a growing demand for young, skilled workers entering the building industry.

“The skills shortage is here,” said Kevin Managhan, training director for Inland Empire Electrical Training Trust, the electrician training program for Eastern Washington and North Idaho. “It may not be at this point in time as critical as it will be in a very short time. In the next few years, it’s looking very good with billions of dollars in construction projects coming up.”

“In the construction industry, we’re always in the recruiting mode, and one of the problems we saw in recent years was the numbers starting to go down. We started looking into why we were not seeing the 18-year-olds, and we found we weren’t getting the word out.”

The beginnings of a pre-apprenticeship program started around 2002 as Spokane Public Schools dealt with a 25-year construction plan, Managhan said.

“For every $5 million Spokane Schools spent on construction, we as different trade programs agreed we’d accept a student as a direct entry into an apprenticeship program. There is a very stringent selection process, so we had to make sure these students were prepared.”

The program also can open up online interactions between trade industries and schools. A Spokane Public Schools’ Web site link for the pre-apprenticeship program allows postings of job site training opportunities for students.

Through pre-apprenticeship work, Knowles sees a benefit for many students who enjoy working with their hands and completing projects. Job shadowing in a student’s senior year also allows for more informed choices.

“What’s really important for them to do is gain some real-life experiences in the different trades.”

He said about 28 trade apprenticeships exist – concrete work, heavy equipment, painters, plumbers, and brick layers among others. Journeymen-level trades in Spokane pay a range from about $24 an hour to almost $30 an hour, with benefits.