Indiana skilled trades training program sees continued growth
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A few years after its initial launch, the ABC Construction Prep Academy is continuing to grow its reach in Indiana.
Created by Associated Builders and Contractors Indiana/Kentucky, the two-year program is designed to provide high school juniors and seniors with hands-on training to prepare them for careers in the construction trades.
The academy has five locations throughout the state, the latest of which recently launched in Lebanon as part of a partnership with Indianapolis-based Gaylor Electric.
Robert Kneberg, director of outreach for the ABC Prep Academy program, told Inside INdiana Business the program was created to address the demand for skilled trades workers.
“We saw the need to develop a construction program for high school students, which was intricately connected to the workforce and served as a true pipeline for skilled and employable students to careers in the construction industry with aligned apprenticeship opportunities,” Kneberg said. “It really started taking off about three years ago, and we’ve seen a lot of growth since.”
The program gives students hands-on experience in areas such as carpentry, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing. One of the other key areas of focus, Kneberg said, is work ethics.
“That’s developing students who will demonstrate each day the foundational skills which result in employment, maintain employment and serve as a catalyst to career growth,” he said.
Gabe Galvan, director of the ABC Construction Prep Academy, said the experiential learning aspect of the program is all about showing the students what the atmosphere of an actual job site will be.
“At our training sites, we try to represent and mimic them coming onto a job site,” Galvan said. “It’s not so much the mentality of, ‘I’m going to another school,’ or ‘I’m going to another class.’ No, I’m showing up to work, and then training and learning is happening as they’re working. Students sometimes don’t even realize how much they’re learning and what they’re gaining because they’re so focused on completing a task.”
The program currently has nearly 500 students participating, a number that Galvan said has grown by roughly 100 to 150 students each year since its inception.
Industry partnerships are also a big part of the program, with local construction contractors such as Gaylor Electric coming in throughout the school year to give presentations, instruction and host field trips for students to see what working in the industry is like.
“These same companies then interview the students for paid summer internships, paid adult internships and full-time employment towards the end of the school year,” Kneberg said.
Gaylor CEO Chuck Goodrich says the students are able to earn credentials while participating in the program, which gives them a leg up when they start an apprenticeship or full-time job with an employer.
“If they go directly into the apprenticeship, they’re advanced in their apprenticeship. So really, it’s all about credentialing our students [and] get them connected to Indiana employers,” Goodrich said. “Because we know…once a student is connected to an Indiana employer, they actually stay here instead of leave here, and they become a great citizen of the state of Indiana.”
The ABC Construction Prep Academy has locations in Fishers, Fort Wayne, Lebanon, Marion and Carroll County.
The Lebanon academy site is located in a newly renovated building that had been vacant for 30 years. In addition to housing facilities for the academy, the building will serve as an operations hub for Gaylor’s teams in Lebanon.
Kneberg and Galvan said the interest in expanding the program to other parts of the state is definitely there.
“[We’re] bringing construction opportunities and training to areas that don’t yet have it and just letting students in Indiana really see that there’s opportunity in a career within construction, and [we’re] just seeking to establish those programs where those programs don’t yet exist,” Galvan said.