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W O R K F O R M E / S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 8 S everal of David Brann's friends haven't really figured out what they want to do when they graduate high school in a few months. But Brann, an 18-year-old Pittsfield resident, has already begun the next chapter of his education. For the past month, he's one of the first two apprentices that a regional construction company is hosting for the next year as part of a new, state-funded program. Brann is getting paid and getting hands- on experience during the school day. It also preps him to one day join the company, Fairfield-based Sheridan Construction Corp., as a young but experienced worker. And the hope is that he sticks around awhile. Filling the retirement gap Entering into a registered construction apprenticeship is a "win-win-win" for the future worker, the company and the state, says Dylan Hapworth, Sheridan's workforce development coordinator. Over 40% of the national construction workforce is expected to retire by 2031, Hapworth says, citing an estimate from a 2017 report from the National Center for Construction Education and Research. "And currently, there's nobody knocking on the door trying to get a job in construc- tion," he says . "It's actually quite difficult to recruit right now, even the old school ways of just putting out ads in maybe the classifieds or on Facebook, even those [ways] are not good enough." What does work is partnering with vo- cational schools to attract interested high schoolers to the apprenticeship program, Hapworth said. The plan is for those students to clock in at least 2,000 hours of paid work or learning opportunities with the company. After achieving that, students receive a certificate they can use to ascertain that they've put in the time to learn the industry. Workforce development programs like this one are being funded by the Maine Department of Labor, which announced in January the availability of up to $12 million in federal funds for developing or expand- ing apprenticeships in various industries. According to Jessica Picard, the agency's spokesperson, "there are currently over 1,100 apprentices in Maine in a variety of occupations, with room to grow." She says that no grants have been offi- cially funded yet, although dispersals are expected to be as high as $3 million. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N W A Y For an apprenticeship program, Sheridan Construction's Dylan Hapworth works with a range of high school students from Fairfield, Pittsfield and surrounding areas. Building a WORK FORCE B Y B R I D G E T R E E D M O R A W S K I Construction firms ramp up workforce development to recruit next generation C o n s t r u c t i o n / T r a d e s