Former student, local business leader also speak at U.S. Department of Labor
Henrico Schools' CTE program was in the national spotlight this week after the program director spoke at a workforce development event hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor. After the event, lawmakers in attendance reached out to learn more about what made the program successful. Mac Beaton, along with a former student and local commercial trades industry leader, were invited to participate in the "Making America Skilled Again" series in Washington, D.C. on Monday during National Apprenticeship Week.
To talk about skilled trades and construction pathways, Beaton brought with him a former Henrico CTE student, Skye Allan, a 2023 graduate of the Advanced Career Education (ACE) Center at Highland Springs High School and Jeff Lewis, vice president of Technical Workforce Development for VSC Fire Security. The three shared their experience working together on the construction of the Western Henrico Adult Education Complex in the old Regency Square Mall. Allan was a standout student apprentice working on the installation of 261 sprinkler heads for the complex under the supervision of VSC Fire and Security. The discussion centered on the question of how K-12 education can better evolve to “fuel and fill” the needs of the workforce.
“The roundtable discussion started out wanting to know a little about how our kids were doing commercial construction, because that’s pretty much unheard of in a school division. And how did we convince everybody that we could do it?” Beaton said. Many commercial trades industries will not employ apprentices under the age of 18 due to liability and insurance costs. “They won’t hire you unless you have some of those basic skills, so we found a way to use the mall project as our classroom, which was a commercial construction site,” he said.
Beaton said Lewis, from VSC, talked about what drives his industry to get involved with K-12 schools and how VSC recognizes that students could do most of the installation work, while still being students in the classroom. What started as a simple collaboration with Henrico County Public Schools’ CTE program, has become a model for VSC in other states they serve. “They are using us as their pilot ground and then taking it to other states trying to do the same things to create this pathway for kids to come into the industry.”
Allan spoke about why she studied the trades to fill her need to understand how things are built. The work she did on the Regency Square project gave her the skills and the opportunity post-graduation to go into the trades. “She said where she started has now helped her visualize her career later,” Beaton said.
Beaton noted that some lawmakers were in attendance and have reached out to learn more about the roadblocks that are preventing students from taking on apprenticeships and how they can remove some of the national barriers that prevent businesses from following VSC’s example.
“The goal was that other school divisions take what we’ve done and figure out how to duplicate it and get through and over some of those hurdles,” he said. “And now they’re looking at the Department of Labor saying what can they do to remove some of those hurdles. I truly believe it’s more of a mindset shift.” He added, “It was truly an honor to be there.”
HCPS’ CTE Signing Day ceremony has become a national trend that was highlighted by Mike Rowe, the star of “Dirty Jobs.” The movement has spread to 49 states and Canada. On April 22, 74 students signed commitment letters with local employers. During its National Apprenticeship Week celebration this week, the U.S. Department of Labor hosted its own apprenticeship signing ceremony.
Along with Henrico County, there were four other partnerships participating in the roundtable discussion:
1. Omaha, Nebraska: Urban Agriculture and Food Technology - Partners: Omaha Public Schools, Omaha Public Schools Foundation, Con Agra Brand
2. Rock Hill, South Carolina: Student-Led Logistics and Distribution - Partners: Rock Hill Public Schools, The Foundation for Rock Hill Schools, Second Harvest Food Bank
3. Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Advanced Manufacturing and Nuclear Innovation - Partners: Oak Ridge Schools, Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation, Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL)
4. Irving, Texas: Broadcast Media and Mass Communications - Partners: Irving Independent School District, Irving Schools Foundation, FOX 4 Dallas–Fort Worth