Nearly 100 Candidates Complete Construction Training Program
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For the ninth consecutive year, more than 90 students have graduated from the ComEd CONSTRUCT Infrastructure Academy, an 11-week job training program that increases the number of diverse, skilled candidates for construction and related jobs in Chicagoland and northern Illinois.
ComEd works with 10 non-profit training affiliates and more than 40 corporate partners to recruit, train, and hire candidates. A new agency for 2021 was Instituto del Progreso Latino, a community-based organization that has been nationally recognized for its workforce development and career pathway programs. The CONSTRUCT program also welcomed a new sponsoring company, Mortenson Construction, a family-owned construction company.
Created in 2013, CONSTRUCT increases the pool of qualified minority candidates for construction jobs in Illinois by strengthening job readiness and life skills and preparing for industry-required testing. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, CONSTRUCT shifted from an in-person to a hybrid model with much of the program's training completed through virtual platforms.
Since 2013, nearly 600 students have completed the program with 70 percent of them securing employment shortly after graduating – many of them women, African Americans, and Latinos who historically have faced barriers to entering these industries.
CONSTRUCT exposes students to solar and energy efficiency technologies to help prepare them to join the local future energy workforce. They also had the opportunity to earn their Class A Commercial Driver's License (CDL) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) 10-hour safety training certification. Program graduates are better prepared to enter into related fields with the knowledge and training that qualify them for entry-level jobs with good-paying, livable wages.
How can you better capture safe practices and guide operatives in your organization? Find out in Standardisation of Procedures in Safety Critical Organisations.
CONSTRUCT also added new programming in 2021, including: Introduction in estimating, Intro into project management and a capstone project where agencies showcased students' experience.
