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Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Training Program

Words: Dan KamysAccording to a Minnesota Concrete & Masonry Contractors Association report, the Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers training program is running smoothly at their new training facility in St. Paul. The Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local Union #1 of Minnesota has 239 apprentices enrolled statewide in their program, including 184 bricklayers and 55 tile finisher and setters. There are 40 third-year bricklayer apprentices, 30 apprentices working on their second year, and 42 starting their first year of apprenticeship. In addition, there are 72 out-of-state bricklayer apprentices studying through correspondence courses and local meetings. A "pre-job" bricklayers training program, which ran for six weeks this summer, produced 25 apprenticeships of the 37 recruited for the course.

The Bricklayers Training Center sponsored an Open House for contractors to come and see the pro-job students in action. It is hoped that this "on-the-job" experience will assist in the placement of most, if not all, of the pre-job students.

Also, the eighth annual 2004 Academy held at St. Cloud State University in June played host to a small, but enthusiastic, group of industrial arts teachers and construction management students learning about all facets of the materials and their installation. The course, now spread over a two-week period, included both classroom and hands-on activities in brick, block, stone and concrete. The highlights of the session were the hands-on sessions and tours of manufacturing plants, from ready-mix and block plants in St. Cloud to a brick plant in Springfield and a cement plant in Mason City, Iowa.

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