If all goes well by the end of the 2010-11 school year, Michael Downing, Austin DeYoung, Jeff Sly and 70 other students at Lincoln High School will have accrued about 120 training hours that may apply toward apprenticeship as a Construction Craft Laborer. They also will have seven credit hours acceptable at many colleges throughout the United States.

The teens are enrolled in a newly offered construction class that provides instruction from general construction training modules provided by the Training and Education Fund of the Laborers' International Union of North America. They also receive 30 hours of OSHA training with a certification card when training is done.

The program, the first of its kind involving a public high school and the union's training curriculum, was the brainchild of longtime friends Scott McClelland, department chairman of Lincoln High School's Career and Technology program, and Dan Prymek, assistant director of the Iowa Laborers Cooperation and Education Trust, a Des Moines-based construction labor-management cooperative.

About two years ago, they decided to act on their ideas. With buy-in from Lynn Pickard, director of the Iowa Laborers Education and Training Fund; Jack Comegys, director of Laborers Local 177 Apprenticeship Training Fund; and John LeConch, director of the LIUNA Training and Education Fund, they presented a proposal to the Lincoln administrators.

The laborers local offered to supply the curriculum, send McClelland to the union's week-long annual instructors' conference to learn how to present training materials, and provide tools and support staff from the local training programs.

In return, the local requested a five-year commitment to continue the program, with McClelland and class space provided to teach the course.

The new program kicked off this year, with the goal of promoting the construction trades as a rewarding career and possible alternative to college.

Currently, 73 students are divided into three classes: First-year instruction includes an OSHA 30 class, general construction I and II classes, a union history class, and field trips to construction sites and the two local participating training sites.

Lincoln Principal Joan Roberts is enthusiastic about the program she sees as a "turning point" in letting youths explore opportunities.

"What makes the program so valuable is that it's real, not theory," she said. "It's the exposure, the doing - actual contact with people who are doing it - a wonderful real-world, hands-on learning experience."

The class also has strong support from local contractors who are supplying equipment and speakers.

Gary Bridgewater, a Lincoln alumnus and president of Des Moines-based Baker Group, recently talked to about 350 of the 500 students enrolled in the school's Science, Trades and Engineering Academy, and he echoes Roberts' thoughts.

"Hands-on involvement adds structure and provides connection and understanding enabling the students not to be bystanders as the future of construction passes them by, but rather committed individuals who will play a role in creating that future," Bridgewater said.

Dick Felice, president of Des Moines-based Forrest and Associate Masonry, is a major player in supplying materials and equipment.

Downing, a sophomore, and DeYoung and Sly, both juniors, believe the class is a great opportunity and really useful. Each wants the opportunity to learn what working in the construction industry will be like, to have involvement in the basics, to learn about the different trades and to be better prepared to work in construction.

To date, all 73 students have completed the OSHA 30 class, are currently in the construction math curriculum, and will prepare a research paper on union labor history by mid-January.

For information, call McClelland at 249-0197.

— Submitted by Joe Blodgett, special projects, Iowa Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust.    Published in the Des Moines Register, Dec. 31, 2010.