YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Years of effort to restock the pipeline of young people entering the building trades are paying off.
“We are seeing progress,” says Tony Deley, business manager of Ironworkers Local 207. “We’re seeing a lot more of the younger generation, [the] right out of high school applicants, more in the last year than previous.”
In the past, applicants for apprenticeships were in the 25- to 26-year-old range. “And now with more outreach to the schools, counselors, area trades events, we’re getting more and more of the younger generation,” he says.
While some trades hire only during certain times of the year, the ironworkers hire year round.
“We have an avenue that we use, it’s called a probationary member,” Deley explains. That lasts from six to nine months during which that probationary member receives benefits like other members, but they undergo a short training class before moving to apprentice school.
“Some trades only accept applicants, only do interviews, one or twice a year, but we’re a little different,” the ironworkers business manager points out. “If I have the ability to hire, which means we have the steady work to keep the new applicants busy out there in the field, then all I’m doing is making a phone call and getting them brought in.”
A short orientation follows and the applicant gets to work as a probationary member.
“And that kind of gives them the opportunity to see if this is right for them and then gives us the opportunity to see if they’re right for us,” Deley continues.
The right person is someone who likes to work with their hands, can tolerate the elements and demonstrates a drive to learn and excel, he says.
SCHOOLS’ INVOLVEMENT
Educational institutions have been piquing young people’s interest in the trades too.
Robert Eggleston, coordinator of career counseling at the Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio, described those efforts as streamlined and excellent.
“The best way I could put it is the classes are very much in demand in the schools,” he says.
If every school in the region could offer a modern shop class, they would, “and the students fill them up very quickly,” Eggleston continues.
The shop classes are updated from those offered when older generations attended school.
“This is like the new-age shop classes that we put together, so this is more modern day looking at your portable power tools, portable drills, your worksite tools,” he says. “So what we’re doing is we’re taking your modern day tools and applying them to more traditional type projects.”
For years, many schools didn’t offer shop classes as college preparatory classes saw more emphasis. When schools opted to reintroduce those offerings, they had to retrofit rooms to accommodate them. Rather than using large tools like table saws to build, the students use the portable versions. But the concepts are the same.
“I guess the best way to put it is whether you cut a 45 degree cut with a portable circular saw on a 2-by-4 framing for a house versus a piece of 1-by-4 for a shelf, it’s still a 45 degree cut with a portable saw,” Eggleston explains.
At some schools, shop students build sheds in advanced classes while in the earlier classes, they construct cornhole boards, Adirondack chairs or picnic tables.
SKILLED TRADES EXPO
Much of that work to expose young people to the trades can be traced to the Mahoning Valley Skilled Trades Expo, which was started in 2019.
“The all trades expo has helped out quite a bit,” says Martin Loney, president of the Western Reserve Building Trades & Construction Council and business agent for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 396.
He estimates the plumbers and pipefitters saw roughly 160 applications and the bricklayers union has hired eight new apprentices since March.
“I think all of us are doing fairly well that way – taking applications, getting people into the programs,” Loney says.
Brian Wydick, business representative for Operating Engineers Local 66 District 2, agrees that more young people are entering.
“But you know the apprenticeship isn’t going to solve all our problems with the amount of work that’s here,” he says.
He points to projects like the construction of Kimberly Clark’s $800 million plant near Warren. He also lists infrastructure projects throughout the region, funded in part by the federal infrastructure bill approved under the Biden Administration.
“If you drive around Trumbull, Mahoning County, especially, you see that infrastructure money being utilized all over,” Wydick says. “I don’t think there’s a road anywhere that hasn’t been disrupted at this point.”
And operating engineers are working on those projects.
EDUCATION AND EXPOSURE
Kevin Reilly, executive vice president at the Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, calls maintaining the pipeline of workers entering the trades a constant work in progress.
“We’re trying to do a lot of different things to try to educate the younger generation on the opportunities in construction and trying to support those that are interested in getting into construction,” he says.
The annual skilled trades expo, set for Sept. 22-24 at the Canfield Fairgrounds, has been well received by schools and annually draws about 6,000 students. Most of those students come from Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania. But it also draws some from Ohio’s Portage and Pennsylvania’s Crawford counties, Reilly says.
The intent of that is to show young people what members of those trades do.
“And then something new for us is we’re going to reach down actually even younger,” Reilly says. “We’ve purchased a storefront at JA BizTown.”
Junior Achievement of Eastern Ohio plans a new JA Discovery Center at the Eastwood Mall’s Center Court. The center will serve as a regional hub for JA BizTown and JA Finance Park, where students will manage businesses, make financial decisions and explore roles as employees, consumers and citizens. Students as young as fourth grade will be able to participate in programming.
And for years, the builders association has participated in estimating competition for civil and construction engineering technology students at Youngstown State University. That targets those interested in the office side of construction, Reilly says.
MISINFORMATION
Some union leaders fear widespread misunderstanding about data centers could hamper efforts across the Mahoning Valley to secure those projects, which put tradespeople to work. Construction of an average size data center brings about 1,700 construction jobs, Loney says.
Wydick agrees.
“Locally it’s kind of disheartening,” he says. “A lot of the new push with our construction, big industry stuff is the data centers. But it seems like a lot of people were being misinformed about old data center buildouts that were utilizing a lot of water. It was dirty energy they were using.”
Modern data centers use their own standalone power generation units, Wydick continues.
A “not in my backyard” mentality persists regarding the buildings, Loney adds.
“What they don’t realize is every time you get in your car, data is being driven. You’re using the GPS to get somewhere,” Loney says. “They’re using their phone every day, their computers, their tablets, whatever the case is – all of that runs through a data center.”
He believes it’s better to control that in the United States rather than data centers locating in other countries where U.S. residents’ personal information could be leaked.
When people voice concerns about those centers’ excessive water use, that’s based on information from when data centers started in the 1990s, he says.
“Now, there’s closed loop systems,” Loney says. “They don’t use any more than what two hotels would use. The public has to be educated on what actually happens in this day and age, not so much what happened 30 years ago. There’s a lot of misinformation out there…”
Pictured at top: Construction crews work on Interstate 680 in Youngstown. Funded with state dollars, it’s one of several infrastructure projects across the Mahoning Valley that involves the work of local trades.
