Program Overview

About the Module

The Construction Workforce Preparedness Module (CWP) is a free pre-apprenticeship education and training curriculum focusing on individuals from historically disadvantaged segments who are currently unemployed or underemployed and would like to enter a construction skilled-trade apprenticeship program. The module is open to anyone with a high school diploma or a G.E.D., and business owners who complete CBIC’s Construction Entrepreneurship Module are eligible for offerings to help them improve their skills or diversify their business. Participants typically take a series of six basic classes held in the evening and complete a comprehensive review (gaining information about skills and training requirements, average earnings and job outlooks) of 16 workstations representing the main skilled trades. Successful completion of the curriculum requires satisfactory performance in classes as well as 90 percent attendance at all activities. Participants who successfully complete the module’s requirements receive a certificate.

 The program’s first orientation and recruitment effort yielded 148 interested people; 50 people tested in to the program and 37 began training in early 2004. Eighty-nine percent of these participants were African-American, eight percent were Latino and three percent were white. Forty percent of participants were between 25 -34 years of age, and about 30 percent were 19 -24 years of age. And men comprised a clear majority of participants: 34 men versus three women enrolled.