The Missouri Works Initiative is holding a five-week pre-apprenticeship training program in Springfield to help people land jobs in the skilled trades.
The program began April 11 and runs through May 13. The goal is to help people land steady, high-paying jobs while also benefiting employers who are short on qualified workers.
The Missouri Works Initiative is a non-profit organization affiliated with the Missouri AFL-CIO. Its goal is to address the state’s changing workforce needs by creating healthy and recovery-friendly workplaces, connecting laid off workers with job-search or upskilling resources for future employment, and facilitating apprenticeship opportunities. The Missouri Works Initiative was formed to eliminate barriers to economic opportunities by connecting Missourians to the necessary resources to build life-sustaining careers.
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“This is really a community-led effort to really build those career opportunities and build a pipeline for working for the construction industry,” said Greta Bax, executive director of the Missouri Works Initiative.
Jeremy Nichols, 36 of Springfield, is one of several people participating in the pre-apprenticeship program. He is hoping to learn skills and make connections that will help him land a high-paying job.
“I want to help improve the life of my children so that I can provide for them better and care for them better and also show them whenever you fall down you can get back up and it gets better as long as you try for it and work hard for it,” Nichols said.
Nichols said the program is off to a good start and he is enjoying it so far. The program began with math lessons which he said were difficult but he was able to recall a lot from his school days.
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“I’m hoping to gain the knowledge and willpower to continue to push through this program, and hopefully maybe a month or two down the road get into a union of my choice,” Nichols said.
The Missouri Works Initiative pre-apprenticeship training program is a five-week introduction to the construction industry for qualified participants in Kansas City and Springfield. The goal of this new initiative is to create a more diverse, equitable, inclusive construction workforce.
The Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 15 — which represents skilled craftworkers in the trowel trades across Western Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska — is one organization that is excited about the potential of the Missouri Works Initiative pre-apprenticeship training program.
“Anytime we can get a larger pool to pull from and more people interested the better we are,” said Steve Morrow of Bricklayers Local 15.
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Morrow said there are many job openings across the region in the skilled trade industries.
To learn more about the Missouri Works Initiative and their programs, visit https://moworksinitiative.org/.
Ralph Green is a business reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Contact him at RAGreen@gannett.com, by phone: (417-536-4061) or on Twitter at RalphGreenNL
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