New York, NY – IUOE Local 15’s training program is rigorous and demanding. Apprentices need serious skills to balance those demands while being on the job. LaborPress spoke to Recruitment Development Coordinator Marie Sullivan and Training Apprentice Coordinator Mike Napolitano to learn more about the program and what it involves.
LP: What types of jobs are the apprentices preparing for?
MN: We could be doing maintenance on machines, operating equipment, operating cranes. We do backhoes, we operate dozers, we operate loaders, we operate skid steers. We do welding, we do pipe welding, we do gas work. We survey – heavy equipment as well.
LP: How long is the apprenticeship program?
MN: Four years.
LP: And they are on the job at some point while they’re training?
MN: Yes, we do place them accordingly.
LP: How many hours do apprentices need to graduate?
MN: [Apprentices] need approximately 6000 before graduation. Either on the job or actually coming here to the school on their own private time and putting in hours here on equipment as well.
LP: A good number of your apprentices come from Helmets to Hardhats; do you find that those individuals have anything in common?
MN: It depends because a lot of that ranges from what [military] branch they were in, to what they did in the military, to where they were placed. It all depends on what they did in the military. Each and every one of the ones that we do have, they have their own stories.
LP: Will the Infrastructure Bill play a part in the future of job opportunities for your trades?
MN: Yeah, absolutely. I think the Infrastructure Bill is gonna play a pretty big part in whatever money actually goes towards infrastructure and being used towards infrastructure, I feel like that’ll definitely utilize a lot of the skills coming out of the program. Actually, it’ll be good because then, we’ll be able to put more and more people out there, which means more on the job training. The more jobs we have, the better off the skills are because now we can start to hone in on what it is they’re seeing on job time — real world type stuff.
LP: What about diversity, equity and inclusion; have you seen improvements in those areas of your program?
MS: Well, right now it’s been pretty steady. But in my new position, I’m going to hone in on bringing more minorities into this program and into this union. It is at a level that could be higher. We pull our female apprentices from a program called Non-Traditional Employment for Women [NEW].
MN: We do offer a good employment for a variety of different people. So, it’s good even from Helmets to Hardhats to NEW. We pull from everywhere we can and we’ll be able to get [people] from even more places. So, it’ll make this a little bit more diverse.
