Trade
SRJC’s new Construction Training Center will add an HVAC program in spring of 2025. [Duncan Garrett Photography]
tools, safety on the job site, resume and interviewing techniques and many others. The classes consist of two weekday sessions and full-day Saturday sessions for three weeks. A free set of tools is awarded to the students when they finish the course. More than 247 graduates have taken the classes—11% of them female. “We conduct an all-female class once a year because there is a
available who want to take the classes. “Our focus is on the 16 to 24 age group in underserved and at-risk communities. There are programs that provide the education part, but the one part they don’t do is give them a job. We introduce the students to the
trades and also to the owners and CEOs of companies, and they hear real-world insights straight from them. We also want to keep classes from becoming too large so we can give everyone special attention.” Hanke is always seeking mentors and volunteers to teach the NextGen classes, and she’s hoping that contractors who are looking to hire apprentices they are willing to train will reach out. “They can be large or small companies, it doesn’t matter. We have some great candidates for them to talk to.”
“We conduct an all- female class once a year because there is a shortage of women in the trades.”
shortage of women in the trades,” says Hanke. “The reason we started this was because we would have a class of 25 youths ready to go and there was only one female in the group. We didn’t want them to drop out, so the all-female class is taught by all-women contractors and speakers so that young women can find out what it’s like to be part of the construction industry.” Currently, NextGen is available
—Letitia Hanke
for Marin County youths via Zoom classes. “We are in the process of starting an in-person class, but the cost is expensive. So we are negotiating to conduct a class in Marin in October with 20 to 25 students that would be a hybrid of Zoom and in-person instruction.” Even with all the many construction training programs out there, she adds, they can’t accommodate all the students
SRJC Construction Training Center Though it was a little late getting off the ground initially, the new Santa Rosa Junior College Construction Training Center opens its doors in August for classes in carpentry. Located on the SRJC Petaluma campus, the 10,000-square-foot building is divided into three sections and will house carpentry labs to start, followed by a residential HVAC program that will come online next January.
56 NorthBaybiz
July 2024
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