HCC gearing up to train builders

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

Honolulu Community College carpentry students Sam Tansey, left, and Danielle Rubino get practice constructing batter boards that are used in laying concrete foundations. RIchard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Surging enrollments in evening apprenticeship programs at the Dillingham Boulevard campus have bumped student numbers from 1,500 to 2,200 in the past year, and it's just beginning.

"What we're facing now is an extraordinary opportunity," said Chancellor Ramsey Pedersen. "For the first time in 15 years, the construction industry is about to come out of its doldrums. Some estimate the industry will go back to its peak of 35,000 workers in the 1980s, so we'll have 10,000 to 15,000 new jobs in the next five to seven years."

That sets the table for HCC and the Neighbor Island community colleges, the state's prime training grounds for the building trades.

Their success in turning out trained journeymen needed to satisfy the demand will have far-reaching implications for the state, helping to determine whether the work will go primarily to Hawai'i residents — giving them the good-paying jobs and offering the promise of long-term economic strength to the Islands.

"The issue becomes 'Are these going to be local hires and union jobs or nonunion contractors from the Mainland?' " Pedersen said. "Our job is to make sure as many local residents get trained as possible."

To accomplish that, the community colleges will have to operate well above their recent average of 150 graduating apprentices each year. HCC will need to be at peak capacity — 3,000 apprentices in the pipeline — to build an adequate workforce, Pedersen said, but that means adding 800 more apprentices soon and finding the facilities and money to do it.

And they'll have to move quickly.

Apprenticeships take anywhere from four to six years to complete, and Bank of Hawaii chief economist Paul Brewbaker sees 3,100 new construction jobs needed this year alone.

But first, there's the matter of money. Pedersen needs an extra $368,000 from the Legislature this year to maintain growth, and even more to ramp up the program to capacity. "We can't handle another 500 or more apprentices without running up costs, maybe a couple hundred thousand more. But the real issue is facilities," he said. "We're booked."

To that end, his staff and Department of Education officials are looking at putting so-called "construction academies" in willing public high schools. They would offer academic training and give HCC the techniques to build a seamless program for those who want to be in any of dozens of specialties that pull in more than $50,000 a year after apprenticeship.

Coordinating efforts

As key money committees in the Legislature listened to the university's plans for expansion at HCC last week, there was support for a speedy response.

Sawdust flies as HCC carpentry student Steve Siu cuts through a board with a radial arm saw. HCC is gearing up to train workers for an expected boom in construction in the coming years. RIchard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

But there are larger issues, too: balancing the boost in training against the overall short- and long-term need in the Islands; whether more training is needed on the Neighbor Islands; and the potential drain of workers to O'ahu and what that means for repair and housing projects on the other islands.

Pedersen suggests a united front to look at all the related problems now, and U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie's Hawai'i Jobs Summit today will help focus attention on all the questions.

HCC also is working closely with the unions, both to expand facilities for training and to coordinate other efforts. The carpenters union is creating an additional stand-alone training center for 60 apprentices in an old warehouse at Barber's Point, with the idea that these spots will go to Neighbor Islanders.

Simultaneously, local union leaders have begun negotiating with contractors in line for the big federal jobs to ensure that prevailing wages will be paid and Hawai'i people get the work.

"We're working on getting our people ready," said Harold "Bucky" Bradshaw, business manager/financial secretary and treasurer for the sheet metal workers union Local 293. "But if I bring in a lot of people, after five years maybe I've got no place to put them. And every union is in that same position. They want to bring in people, but you don't want to make it so you have a lot of people unemployed at some point in time."

Making it through

For those who do qualify, the days are long and hard, and many apprentices bail out early in the program.

Fifth-year apprentice Matt Takara, 27, who has only a few more months to complete, admits to an occasional day when he couldn't handle the grueling schedule that finds him getting up at 5 a.m. for a full work day before three more hours of school three times a week and every other Saturday.

On top of that, "if you miss school unexcused, you have to miss work to make it up, so you don't get paid for that day."

Those days are rare for him. Takara loves the trade that was his father's. Learning to manipulate metal, use machinery, read blueprints, understand regulations and turn concepts into products such as air-conditioning ducts or stainless steel kitchen counters offers a sense of accomplishment — and great prospects.

"My dad was a sheet metal worker, and he gave a good life to me, my sister and my mom," said Takara. "Right now he's retired and real happy."

By 4:30 p.m. every weekday afternoon, Takara is one of those sweaty, tired apprentices who rumble into the parking lot at HCC as the dayside students clear out.

KeAnn Amaral, 31, is also thrilled with her new skills. A cocktail server and divorced mother of four, Amaral went into sheet metal as a challenge and because a union scholarship paid her way. Now she's excited about prospects for herself and her family, and the excitement of creation.

"You lay it out, bend it, form it, seal it and install it. That's pretty cool."

With a 50 percent dropout rate, these are the kind who stick, said instructor Danny Aiu.

"We're always going to get the ones who come in and say, 'I hear you make good money,' " Aiu said. "But we end up with the ones who want to fabricate things, to make something from nothing. The ones who say 'I want a job with good money,' don't last."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.