Opportunities Long Island, an education program that prepares young adults from poor communities to compete for apprenticeships offered by construction unions, has partnered with Minority Millennials to recruit more apprentices from diverse communities.
The two groups are working together this fall to market pre-apprenticeship to young people from Long Island’s Black and Hispanic communities. The goal is to recruit qualified candidates from those groups to participate in training classes early next year that will create a pathway to apprenticeships in trades like plumbing, carpentry and electrical work.
Erica Rechner, executive director of Opportunities Long Island said that her organization, which runs one eight-week training course a year for 20 to 25 selected applicants, gives young people from disadvantaged communities another avenue to win acceptance for often-competitive union apprenticeships.