Creating Opportunities to Build Diversity and Competence
If the students in attendance at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge, La., are a typical sample, the I’M GREAT training program has succeeded in doing what the industry has been trying to do for years. Women and men of all ages, skin color and background are enrolled in the Gulf Coast Workforce Development Initiative four-week, pre-apprenticeship training. Through the end of September 2007, GREAT had trained 11,078 new recruits to the construction industry, and 3,339 are currently enrolled for upcoming training, says Tim Horst, program manager.
Get Rewarded for Education & Advancement Training (GREAT) has been advertised on billboards, bus stop signs and radio stations throughout the Hurricane Katrina-affected Gulf Coast. “They call the toll free number, talk to somebody at the call center, who gets their information, where they live and then refers them to the appropriate location in each state,” Horst says. If you haven’t been to school in a while, no problem. “Counseling is part of the enrollment process,” Horst says. Students are required to have a minimum of 8th grade reading and math skills, but refresher tutoring is available at most locations. “A lot of people get tripped up on fractions and need refreshers,” Horst says. “They can take remedial courses for free or near free.”