Eric Howard, a painter from Hialea, Fla., knows what it’s like to dream of a better life. Growing up in inner city Miami in a working-class family, Howard worked odd jobs after school and learned from his family how to make do. He painted his first house as a teenager—but it wasn’t until his first painting class at Miami’s local Job Corps program that he decided to make his living as a union painter.
Through a partnership between the Miami Job Corps program and the local Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) union, Howard is now a licensed painter with 15 years of experience under his belt. In addition to running his own jobs, he’s president of his local union, IUPAT Local 365. But the role he’s proudest of is his job as a full-time instructor with Job Corps, where he teaches and mentors young people aspiring to become union painters.
As a Job Corps instructor, Howard focuses on filling his classes with promising students—those with the talent and determination to make it in the construction industry—and then teaches them the tools they need to succeed as apprentice painters.
I look for ones who have a positive attitude, the ones who grasp the techniques fast and are good listeners—the ones who are really serious. I let them know when they come into the Job Corps program, that this is everything you’re going to need to succeed in the apprenticeship program.
In his classes at Job Corps, Howard’s students learn techniques and safety practices before moving on to work-based learning. After completing the program, they continue their training as apprentice painters with IUPAT before becoming certified painters.
Unions across the nation have partnered for years with Job Corps to tap the potential of ambitious young men and women and raise their interest in the building trades. Jobs Corps, a federally run program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, offers free education and vocational training to disadvantaged youth between the ages 16 and 24. Unions provide 22 percent of the training at Job Corps centers nationwide and the majority of Job Corps centers partner with at least one union, according to Andrew Larson, IUPAT national Job Corps coordinator. IUPAT has partnerships with 48 Job Corps centers.
The students, who are generally from low-income neighborhoods with limited job opportunities, come to Job Corps for a lot of reasons—to earn their GED, to get coaching for the job application process, to get trained for a trade—but all of them share the goal of aspiring to something better. Howard is quick to point out the advantages of the partnership to unions.
There’s an advantage to our union taking Job Corps kids because they walk in with a lot of skills that you wouldn’t know just coming off the street. They know about safety, drywall, finishing. They are a step above the average guy.
And as a prior participant, and now mentor to so many Job Corps students, he’s seen firsthand the positive impact that the partnership has on students.
We get a lot of inner-city kids, kids who never really had someone to guide them or tell them they’re messing up. It’s a privilege to see a kid who doesn’t know anything about this trade come in and after you teach them and give them the tools, they leave Job Corps and get a job in the field. Some of them will call me back with questions. These programs are the foundation of a life-time relationship.