Cleveland considers $10 million to grow building trades

Cleveland City Council will soon vote to allocate $10 million from its American Rescue Plan Act funding to help bolster the region’s construction workforce.

According to a presentation made at Council’s Workforce, Education, Training and Youth Development Committee held on Jan. 24, the funds will be used for work development purposes in the following manner:

Increase the number of

· pre-apprentices and apprentices ($5 million)

· Improve trainee/worker support, including coaching ($1 million)

· Minority contractor/business development ($1 million)

· Outreach and marketing

· ($1.2 million)

· Youth pipeline building ($1.5 million)

· Operational purposes ($300,000)

The legislation, proposed by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, comes at a time when the construction outlook in Ohio is booming, as a slew of marquee projects are either underway or set to break ground, including projects this year in Cleveland and the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council jurisdiction.

The work outlook, combined with the continued retirement of the Baby Boomer generation, has made the recruitment of new building trades members critical, especially bringing in new apprentices.

Dave Wondolowski, Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary and Business Manager, explained that when it comes to recruitment, his affiliated Local Unions must look at the rate of attrition due to the work forecast.

“We no longer have the luxury of bringing in one-for-one – where one person retires, we put one person in,” he said. “We really need five for every person who leaves. There is just that much volume of work in the community.”

Among the projects underway or set to break ground are the Sherwin-Williams headquarters in downtown Cleveland and two new Cleveland Clinic Foundation buildings on the hospital system’s main campus near University Circle.

According to the presentation, there is a need to grow the number of people who complete registered apprenticeship programs, and it is vital to ensure there is racial, ethnic and gender diversity within future registered apprentice classes.

The presentation also noted the long-term need for more union construction workers, as the industry offers good wages and engaged employers who want to fill open jobs.

Wondolowski stressed the importance of recruiting at local high schools and the ability to work with guidance counselors, who can identify and urge more students to consider a career with a CBCTC affiliated Local Union.

Besides no college loan debt to shoulder, Wondolowski pointed out the pay a first-year apprentice receives is good.

“Conceivably, an 18-year-old can graduate from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and could become a breadwinner of their household overnight,” he added.

The presentation did note that more needs to be done to incorporate tailored training strategies within the earn while you learn model. This includes reduced occupational barriers to training and increased awareness of support and pathways.

Potential workers also need better certainty that they will be able to succeed in training.

The overall goal of the funding is to enroll 3,000 people over the next four years in registered apprenticeship programs.

Of those 3,000 people, 800 will be grant-impacted participants and 75 percent should be women or black, indigenous and people of color.

The program will also seek to increase the number of minority-owned subcontractor businesses who operate within the city.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County branch of Ohio Means Jobs was named as an agency that can help facilitate the endeavors amongst more than a dozen partnering organizations and agencies including the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, Cleveland Builds, Construction Employers Association, Ohio Means Jobs and Cuyahoga Community College.

According to Wondolowski, the funds will go to Cleveland Builds, and the organization will focus recruitment efforts on both high school students and members of the City’s underserved community, including those who face career barriers.

“This initiative is great, and it will match up and meld with our current programs that we have like Cleveland Builds, which is an industry-led initiative,” said Wondolowski. “It’s going to be great to have that funding bolstering our program.”