New blood in the construction industry: program fills need for new workers, gives young adults a chance.

• Author: Cutler, Debbie
• Position: From the Editor

Just as Gov. Sean Parnell is pushing for the State to pay for college or job training for all "A" students meeting eligibility requirements, and partial tuition for "B" and "C+" students, Dick Cattanach, chief executive officer for the Construction Education Foundation for the Alaska Construction Academies (AkCA) is pushing to continue funding for its current academies, as well as expand to new communities.

It's well deserving of the State's and legislators' attention.

"The problem started crystallizing 15 to 20 years ago," said Cattanach. "For every three workers who retire we only have two people to replace them. We need about 1,000 construction workers added to the labor force each year."

At the time, the school systems were no longer preparing youth for careers in construction. In fact, one principal went so far to say shop classes were no longer needed because all were preparing for college.

Not so, says Cattanach. Many students dropped out. Some graduated but didn't want to go to college. Some wanted a good-paying job with training such as that envisioned by Cattanach.

"At first we didn't have an idea about how to achieve our goals," he said. "But we knew we had a problem. After about three years, we came up with a solution."

That was nearly six years ago when the concept of Alaska Construction Academies was born. Today, classes are offered on high school campuses statewide for youth. Adult classes are also offered as post secondary education.

Under Gov. Frank Murkowski, AkCA received $1 million to achieve its dream during a time of surplus for the State government. It was off and running in 2006, the first year in Anchorage through the Anchorage School District.

"ASD is a loyal partner," said Cattanach, though it wasn't always so. At first, they said "no" to participating in the program. But Cattanach persisted. "One day, Carol Comeau (ASD superintendent) came to us and asked us to lunch," he said. "She said she was tired of us kicking them around. She asked, 'What can we do to work with you?'" A partnership was formed.

Next came Fairbanks, Kenai, Mat-Su, Ketchikan and Juneau.

"We increased our budget to basically run all for $3.5 million (under then-Gov. Sarah Palin)," Cattanach said. "Our partners each are key to...