In this successful MPS program, students learn trades from facilities and maintenance department

Dennis Young is like a lot of Milwaukee Public Schools students. He’s in his final year at MacDowell Montessori School. He’s on the cross country, track and cheer teams. But there’s one slight difference.

On days when Young, 18, doesn’t have class, he dons a green protective jacket, heat-safe gloves and a welder’s helmet. With instructions from his mentor in the MPS maintenance department’s welding shop, Young lights an acetylene torch.

Sparks fly and pop as Young welds together an 82-inch-by-51-inch metal sheet that will become part of a radiator guard to cover heating vents for schools warmed by steam heat.

“I haven’t done a weld like this in a while,” said Young, who graduates later this month. “I’ve mostly been in the field … but it’s still my favorite part of this job.”

That job is putting in nearly 40 hours to learn the basics of welding and other skills needed to become a sheet metal worker through MPS’ Department of Facilities and Maintenance Services’ youth apprentice program. The program aims to prepare students for a career in the skilled trades, which have a labor shortage.

Young started his apprenticeship in August. Upon graduation, he will continue his training with Local 18 Sheet Metal Hall to gain the knowledge to be a journeyman sheet metal worker.

Young went into the trades because he wanted options. He first did a summer program with We Energies, with aspirations to be a line mechanic, but decided on sheet metal. Young said he liked welding more, and it provided more opportunities for hands-on learning. Besides, the shop staff lets Young collect leftover scrap metal to create his own designs.

“It has opened doors for me,” Young said.

The apprenticeship program could quite possibly be the nation’s first operated by a school system’s maintenance department.

“This is a unique atmosphere for them to come and engage with these career opportunities,” says Giles Patterson, the program's administrator and a supervisor of maintenance and repair. “What better place to gain these opportunities and skill sets with the infrastructure we have in place?”

Nearly all the trades that support the school system are housed in the maintenance department, from carpentry, electricians and plumbers to sheet metal workers, steamfitters and machinists.

Students receive in-school training in their chosen trades from maintenance personnel who are certified journeymen and serve as the students’ mentors. They learn safety procedures, including OSHA certification, and get hands-on job experience. Students are paid by the maintenance department and receive a toolbelt donated by Milwaukee Tool.

Once students complete the program, the department pairs them with a contractor to continue their apprenticeship training post-graduation. Depending on the trade, it could take up to five years of training and continued education to become a licensed journeyman.

Students apply for the program through MPS’s Career and Technical Education department. It's open to juniors and seniors but students can express interest in the trades as early as their freshman or sophomore year.

The selection process is competitive but the program works with students to ensure they stay on track to graduate. Students must maintain a 2.5 GPA and meet school attendance requirements.

Youth apprenticeship isn't new to the department. It's had youth engagement since 1997. But the program became more formalized 10 years ago, evolving into its current iteration.

A pipeline for minorities in the construction trades

Today, the program has become essential in creating a pipeline for recruiting minorities in the construction trades while filling a gap in the skilled labor force.

Blacks and Latinos comprise 4.4 percent and 4.7 percent of apprentices in the union trades, compared to 89.6 percent of Whites, according to a joint study by the Midwest Economic Policy Institute and the Illinois Labor and Employment Relation's Project for the Middle Class. The study examined 2018 data from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development looking at minority enrollment in the trades.

“Right now, all the trades are looking for apprentices. ... With the baby boomers retiring at such a large rate, it is leaving a huge gap in the trades itself,” said Daniel M. Swiatkowski, a sheet metal shop crew leader and an administrator of the apprenticeship program.

“We are taking care of both problems. We are bringing our students in, giving them the hands-on training, the exposure they need to get an apprenticeship. And as soon as they graduate our program, we get them into an apprenticeship with the trades in the city.”

“We are heavily recruited here,” Patterson added, noting construction contractors with MPS know the training provided and the quality of work the students produce.

Apprentices starting out make 45 percent of a journeyman’s rate. For a journeyman electrician, the average rate is $73 an hour, a plumber $76.71 an hour, a carpenter $69.15 and a sheet metal worker $75.08 an hour.

Increasing minority participation in the trades also helps narrow the wealth gap between their White counterparts. The department partnered with the nonprofit Secure Futures to teach financial literacy to the apprentices, whose wages increase as they gain experience.

"What we want to do is instill in our apprentices the skills of not only the trade but financial literacy to help create what we call generational wealth," Swiatkowski said. "Not only are they getting a trade but a skill managing their money and what to do with it."

'I could still use my smarts in a way to help people'

Many in the program see a career in the trades not only as a chance to make good money but as an alternative to college. That's the case for Rufus King High School junior Madison Kyles, 16, who's in her second year as an apprentice in the DFMS electrician shop.

She planned to attend college, but her decision came down to being financially secure or mired in college debt.

“I thought long and critically about my future and about debt and I knew that I liked working with my hands and I liked helping people,” Kyles said.

She decided to be an electrician since it allowed her to use her critical thinking skills. She started her apprenticeship in August 2023.

“I could still use my smarts in a way to help people,” Kyles said, noting while college is “pushed on minorities,” it's important to realize people of color can make a good living and have good careers in the trades.

Marquavion Banks, 20, who graduated from MacDowell Montessori in 2022, started the program as a junior. Now, he works full time as a union construction wireman with Hurt Electric.

“Coming in, I didn’t know nothing. I couldn’t tell a receptacle from a switch,” said Banks, who’s in his second year of his pre-apprenticeship. “It took me a month to get a pretty good understanding of the basics.”

He credits the program's hands-on approach to building his skills. His mentors took the time to explain why things are done certain ways and the consequences if not. He doesn’t think he would have gotten the same support if he had gone the traditional apprenticeship route.

“My mentor would watch over my shoulder and show me what to do next and how to do it. Coach me from the side,” Banks said. “They are great teachers.”

Kyles agreed. “They do a very good job at patience. I think that is very important, especially when you know nothing. I never had anyone get upset at me for asking a question.”

Banks’ interest in the trades came when he needed to find something to do to fill his half-days at school. He was first steered toward college but knew that wasn’t for him.

Eventually, he learned about the youth apprenticeship program. He knew he wanted to be an electrician in his sophomore year when he participated in a We Energies training program.

“I liked it, but those guys climb poles. And the voltage, if you touch it, you’re dead on the spot. I know I’m kind of clumsy so that wasn’t for me,” Banks said.

He preferred something that kept him safely on the ground and working with less voltage. He settled on being an in-house electrician.

Alejandro Barba, 24, went through the program in 2017 as a senior at Hamilton High School. Now he works as a journeyman electrician with MPS. He, too, was looking to fill his half-days when he signed up for the youth apprenticeship.

But working odd jobs like roofing and dishwashing since 12, Barba knew he wanted something better.

“That seemed better to me than working at McDonalds or something,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with McDonalds, (but) I was over careers where you are stuck and there is no improvement, and there’s no moving up. When you get a taste of that, you just know when something is not just for you.”

The most challenging part about being an electrician is grasping all the concepts. Barba knew the basics from his prior construction work. But he said there's a lot of theory behind it. And he admits he was a little intimidated to ask questions of Patterson, whom Barba first worked under.

“He was telling me about how to wire a three-phase motor, how it is 120 volts — all this terminology and it just went straight through me. I didn’t know anything,” Barba said. “It is not just all labor, physical grunt work. You got to know what you are doing, think about it and be very organized.”

Though licensed as a journeyman, Barba said he's still learning. That's what he likes about this trade.

“You don’t stop learning,” he said. “There is always some new devices, new equipment — just non-stop learning.”

Impressive is how Swiatkowski describes the youth apprentices coming through the department’s door. Over the last 10 years, the department has had a 90% completion of students who've come through the program.

“It’s just amazing their talent, their dedication," he said. "They know what they want to do, and all we are doing is opening up the doors for them.”

A good recruitment tool

Kyles welcomes the curiosity she gets when working in the schools. She often gets surprised looks from male students when walking through the schools carrying a ladder on her shoulder. Then comes the questions about joining the program.

“It definitely does inspire some of the girls and even the guys to just get in there,” she said. “And I if I can do it, especially because I am short, too, you can, too."

It's a good recruitment tool, added Patterson. He said the biggest hurdle for the program is getting the word out and overcoming the college push from school counselors.

“What we depend on is these students out there sharing their experiences within the school to their peers or fellow students,” Patterson said. “We depend on that heavily to find the quality of the students we are looking for.”

Patterson noted about 25 percent of recruits are often referred by current and past students. This February, nearly 30 students sign commitment papers to join the department’s construction youth apprenticeship program.

Kyles hopes her presence inspires more girls to consider the trades. But it does take some navigation since it is a male-dominated field. She advises girls to be patient with themselves.

“Know yourself,” she said. “You can still be very feminine and still be in the trades.”

Sadly, she added women still need to work harder “to gain the same respect.”

“Just understand that and never take it personally; know what you are capable of,” Kyles said. “I gave myself a chance.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MPS students learn trades from facilities and maintenance department