COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Franklin County Board of Commissioners is hoping to inspire more residents of central Ohio to take advantage of opportunities in the trade industry as more major companies bring workforce hubs to the area.
The “Building Futures” partnership, created back in 2018, has now served 200 graduates, helping underserved residents take advantage of the construction and trades industries.
The 12-week program equips members of underserved communities with life skills and teaches them basic construction skills to prepare them for a building trades apprenticeship.
"Ironworkers will never be obsolete,” said Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce.
Boyce said programs like this are essential for giving residents a chance at a higher income position while building skills that can withstand the test of time.
"The idea that you know, you gotta’ go to college to do that, this is college quite frankly, it's a different type of college for a different type of expertise. The skill and the expertise you pick up in a trade is just as important as engineering or architecture skills. So that is very much a part of the ecosystem of the new central Ohio we'll know 10 years from now,” said Boyce.
Nicholas Slaughter is one of those students who has gone through the program and is now in his second year of working with the Ironworkers Local 172, building his dream of becoming a welder.
“I want to be a jack of all trades of everything they do over here, I want to be a connector, I want to climb up on the steel, build bridges, do rebar, I want to do all of that,” said Slaughter.
CEO of Creating Central Ohio Futures, LeLand Bass, wants to educate residents on the major needs and opportunities within the trade industry.
“When you see when you go out all of the construction work and hear about all of the big projects coming, we want to make sure we're not bringing in workers from somewhere else when we have people in our community who are able to do that work with just a little bit of work and a little bit of training,” said Bass.
Anyone who is interested in opportunities through the “Building Futures,” program can visit their website here.