Apprenticeships offer students new career paths

rew Hastings is a proud, fourth-generation ironworker with Local #12. This spring, he was at the Empire State Plaza talking up the career with area high schoolers as part of the annual Apprenticeship Works showcase.

Presented by the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council, the showcase included interactive demonstrations from all 15 of the construction trades.

“I’m 35, and I’ll be honest with you, I love my job,” Hastings told a group of students from Shenendehowa High School. “We’re all a family and we take care of each other, on and off the job.”

Hastings handed around a deactivated rivet buster, which is essentially a jackhammer built to shear through steel rivets on bridges and beams, often hundreds of feet above the ground. “You hold that trigger and hang on for dear life,” he told the students.

“And you’ll actually teach us how to do this stuff?” senior Ethan Rumsey asked excitedly.

“All you need is a good attitude, reliable transportation, and we’ll teach you the rest,” Hastings assured him.

That’s the promise of being in a unionized apprenticeship program, which provides paid on-the-job training in the construction and building trades. Supervised by the New York State Department of Labor, apprenticeship programs are offered through individual unions at no cost to the students.

“Students earn while they learn,” said Davon Lomax, political director for District Council 9, the Finishing Trades Institute of New York. The institute is the education department for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, and during the event, students tried their hand at painting, taping, and other tasks associated with the trade.

Apprentices receive healthcare benefits, pensions and annual annuities — all rare in today’s economy — and enjoy the security of a career that can’t be replaced by AI, Lomax said. “They learn a trade that no one can take away from them, and they retire with dignity,” he said.

During the event, students from six different districts toured the union booths. “Schools are pushing trades more than they have in the past, which is good because they’re solid union jobs,” said Jason Brisko, apprenticeship coordinator for the Carpenters Local 291. Skilled carpenters can take home as much as $83,000 a year, putting them solidly in the middle class. “It’s not a job where you’re going to sit around playing on your phone all day. That’s not going to fly,” Brisko said. “But if you want to work, it’s a great career path.”

Albany Public School Teachers Association member Nicole Lindeman, a Career and Technical Education teacher at Myers Middle School, brought her students to the event to introduce them to the range of jobs that are available to them right out of high school.

“CTE is about jobs, and getting kids thinking about their future,” Lindeman said. Apprenticeships are a great route for many students because they offer them a chance to move and grow while getting paid. “Kids need more choices,” Lindeman said. “This could give them a path.”