The Laborers’ Training and Retraining Trust of Southern California celebrated the advancement of 508 apprentices to LIUNA journeymen and journeywomen status during a virtual 2020 Apprenticeship Graduation Ceremony on Jan. 23.
“2020 presented everyone with a unique set of circumstances in which to live and work. While a lot of people could work from home or sit in on a zoom meeting these apprentices, now journeymen and women, had no choice but to go to the jobsite every day to learn their trade and to earn their pay raises,” Jon P. Preciado, business manager of the Southern California District Council of Laborers (SCDCL), said in a statement.
“In spite of the obstacles laid in front of them, these men and women rose to the challenge and got the job done. On behalf of the 32,000 LIUNA members in Southern California, I applaud them on their accomplishment.”
In the class of 2020, the Construction Craft Laborer Apprenticeship program graduated 492, the Laborers’ Landscape and Irrigation Fitter Apprenticeship program graduated seven, and the Laborers’ Cement Mason Finisher Apprenticeship graduated nine new journeypersons. At the present time, the Laborers Training School has more than 2,700 active apprentices and graduated nearly 3,000 in the last five years.
“It has been a difficult year but I think we did a great job of managing the situation. Based on COVID safety protocols for staff and students we had to limit our in-person course offerings and move some classes to an on-line format and cross train our staff,” said Scott Gordon, Laborers Training School executive director.
“Luckily, we had been working to establish on-line training standards for a few years. We worked swiftly to ensure that our on-line training met standards at the State level and received approval from our Local Education Agency. We did all of this so that we could to ensure that these apprentices could get the classes they needed when they needed them. I am so happy that we could help them make that step to journey status.”
The Laborers’ Training and Retaining Trust of Southern California is a partnership between the SCDCL and its signatory contractors. The Laborers Training School operates 12 facilities in Southern California and provided 172,568 hours of construction skills training to 14,306 students in 2020.
The Laborers School offers:
- More than 140 courses that meet industry standards
- 12 training sites and mobile training units that bring training to any location
- Three California-Apprenticeship-Council-approved apprenticeship programs
- Instructors credentialed by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing
- Training processes that are accredited (AC 371) by the International Accreditation Service (IAS)
- Curriculum Development processes that are accredited (AC 372) by the International Accreditation Service (IAS)