Construction workforce training: providing skilled workers throughout Alaska.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

Becoming a trade apprentice doesn't require joining a union. In fact, around 340 Alaskans are currently working their way through an apprenticeship via merit-based Associated Builders and Contractors of Alaska (ABC), which incorporated in 2000 as the result of a dispute over bidding in Fairbanks. Non-union contractors wanted to be able to bid on equal footing with union contractors, so a group of non-union contractors incorporated to form an Alaska chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors of America. ABC of Alaska is part of a national organization with more than twenty-two thousand members and more than seventy chapters worldwide.

"Our membership hovers around 140 businesses, with a retention rate of about 88 percent," says Amy Sibert, ABC of Alaska president. Apprenticeship training began ten years ago, Sibert says. She wasn't there at the time, but says it took a lot of hard work and belief in the future success of the program to get the training effort off the ground.

ABC offers training in a variety of fields: carpenter, electrician, electronic systems technician, heating and air conditioning installer/servicer, construction painter, plumber, sheet metal worker, pipe fitter, construction craft laborer, powerline distribution erector, glazier, operating engineer, sprinkler fitter, and insulation worker. They hope to add welding to the list this year, says ABC apprenticeship coordinator Emily Evans.

Apprenticeships through ABC are slightly different than those through union organizations. Applicants go through an interview process held every two weeks and then are added to an applicant list. Instead of being selected for an apprenticeship, they're ranked in the interview according to applicable experience and other factors and their name goes on an applicant list. When a member company needs an employee, applicants get selected from the list and their apprenticeship begins.

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"The [people on the] applicant list generally have zero work experience," Sibert says.

Once an applicant is selected for a job, their training and schooling can begin. ABC's apprenticeships are a mix of on-thejob training and classroom instruction. On the job, apprentices are paired with journeymen who monitor closely the skills they are learning.

"It's a one-to-one ratio of journeyman to apprentice," Sibert says.

The journeyman knows what level the apprentice is on, she says, and makes a point to work on the specific skills related to that level of training. Employers play a part, too, by placing apprentices where they can work on the skills they're studying.

Each apprentice goes through about 680 hours of classroom instruction. The instruction is strictly bookwork and testing. Apprentices can work through their textbooks at home and come in to the ABC site or to local job centers to take each section's written test.

"Everything is self-study--it's all done on their own," says Amber Cartier, director of apprenticeships for ABC of Alaska.

Allowing apprentices to work on their own means employees don't have to give up valuable work time to take classes, she says. But that doesn't mean they're out of touch with program administrators.

"We're always here for anyone who calls in, either for a member company or an apprentice who needs a little extra push getting their work done," Cartier says.

It generally takes four years for apprentices to complete the program, she says, provided the apprentice stays on top of what they're supposed to be doing. That's about eight thousand hours plus the classroom training. Construction work is typically seasonal, so apprentices aren't penalized if they aren't working a portion of that time. They can still study and take tests until they are rehired, Cartier says.

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