Our workforce is in dire need of capable, passionate young people with technical education applicable to careers in construction. Amy Rock is one person delivering that to Prince George's County Maryland and the surrounding region.

Transcript:

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00:00
Speaker 1
We need to get back to work. And work is one of the ways that we contribute to this country, that we grow our gdp, we grow our tax base, we contribute to each other effectively. We help finance our national security, our homeland security, our, you know, our infrastructure.

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00:15
Speaker 2
I had key employees that really wanted to be leaders in the company, but they didn't want to have any ownership in it, responsibility that way. So I just had to start researching out and figuring out, well, how do I market my company?

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00:28
Speaker 3
Go to your local school board for one hour twice this year. And if you can have even just 10 or 15 employers show up and do that at the same school board every single month, there's two contractors filling out a little card to give your 30 seconds at the podium that says, I need your help and we have great jobs. Eventually they will hear you. But if everyone just did two hours a year, that's how we change this.

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00:49
Speaker 4
Stacy, how you doing this morning?

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00:51
Speaker 5
I'm doing great.

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00:52
Speaker 4
She loves it. I ask the question every time, she's like, I'm fine, dude, just a little much.

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01:01
Speaker 6
And I say to that owner, I said, so you're not willing to invest in yourself. You're not going to invest in yourself. You're going to invest in companies you have no control over, whereas your company you control. And you don't have the confidence to pour the money into that.

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01:15
Speaker 7
When things are busy and they're looking for their GC friends to sit down and negotiate a project on a GC and a fee, and they're more excited about building the project, and then all of a sudden the model, the market swings and now the developer market is going to go out and they're going to hard bid the same project to two or three different PCs. And that's where it starts going down.

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01:44
Speaker 4
It's morning huddle time. Good morning, Stacy and Amy. So good to see you.

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01:49
Speaker 5
Good morning.

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01:50
Speaker 8
Good morning.

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01:52
Speaker 4
Oh, sorry for that. How are you doing today, Stacy?

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01:55
Speaker 5
I'm doing great. I love the little intro that me and Amy just had. We've known each other for quite some time and career technical education is a huge passion of mine. So I'm excited to see what she's going to say today. And were just going over briefly about different logistical challenges that we had in trying to get kids to businesses, you know, tour, like, fab shops and projects. So we'll get into that in a little bit.

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02:26
Speaker 4
Awesome. Yes, we will. Guaranteed. Yeah. Amy, how are you today?

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02:30
Speaker 8
I am doing great. We are actually not in the office today. Okay. We're Actually on holiday in Prince George's County Public schools. So I want to say to any of our Muslim listeners, Eid Mubarak, Happy Eid, to any of those folks celebrating today. And thank you so much for having me on. I told Chad the other day that I could talk CTE for days. So I'm going to try tone it down a little bit to fit our 20 minutes.

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02:57
Speaker 4
Well, yeah, I was going to say we're going to give you less than days, but I think we're going to cover a lot of turf in a short amount of time. And, and I know you're super fired up and passionate about this topic. You know, just in my, you know, brief conversation with you in preparing for this, you got me pretty fired up.

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03:16
Speaker 5
So.

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03:17
Speaker 4
So I look forward to digging into it.

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03:20
Speaker 8
So.

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03:20
Speaker 4
So folks, Amy Rock is joining the morning huddle. She is the career and technical education supervisor at Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland. She's been involved in that for quite some time. Very accomplished. She's, you know, helped to design and implement an award winning program that is, you know, being duplicated and you know, learned from by districts all over the state and all over the country. So I'll let Amy talk more about that. Amy, what else would you tell us about your background and you know, sort of who you are for our audience?

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04:01
Speaker 8
Well, again, thank you for giving me this platform this morning. I love cte, love talking about CTE apprenticeships. Those are things that just really get me going because they are so great for students, they are great for our communities, they are great for our country and providing opportunity for our students and to allowing them to grow. So my background, without getting into too much detail, I've lived and worked across the country in multiple different states as a teacher, as an administrator, as a coach, as multiple different things. Instructional coach, not sports coach. But with cte I really got my start here in Prince George's County 10 years ago and currently now as supervisor, I supervise all of our construction trades programs which include electrical carpentry, masonry, H VAC and plumbing, and construction, design management. So yay, construction.

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05:02
Speaker 8
And I also have our early education, early childhood education and our teacher academy programs, as well as financial literacy, all of the family and consumer sciences. Oh, and wait. So apprenticeship really is the kind of our talking point this morning. It is our baby that we are incredibly proud of. And apprenticeship. I do have to give full credit to those who came before me because as I was telling Stacey earlier, apprenticeships kind of landed in my Lap as a, hey, we're starting this thing. We need some extra help. And eventually it came to me completely. So the program that Chad was talking about, we have two different models in the county. One is a school to work apprenticeship, which we run ourselves.

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05:53
Speaker 8
It's a Prince George's County Public Schools apprenticeship where our students in our construction trades begin the program during their junior year of high school. We hire them in Prince George's county in our building services department, and they work for us. They earn 450 hours on the job training. They do their level one and level two in their trade with us in the classrooms. And when they graduate, they then have the opportunity to be hired full time and continue that apprenticeship once they graduate. And we will have our first group graduating next year, which is still working on their hours because they need, depending upon the trade, between 6,000 and 8,000 hours on the job in addition to their Level 4 related instruction. And then they'll be able to sit for that journeyman's license.

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06:42
Speaker 8
So we're incredibly excited about that and very proud of those students, proud of our building services shops who embraced this. It was something brand new and we're the only ones in the states still, I believe, offering this model. And it came about because we just couldn't find qualified workers. When you're in the public sector, the salaries are a little less. So we had to sell kids on the fact that the benefits package, the stability, you're going to be on the job every day, you're not going to have those layoffs, those type of things. That's program one, and that's program one. The one that we're really talking about outside with our partners is our youth apprenticeship, which in Maryland is called Apprenticeship Maryland program. And it's similar to what we're doing in that it begins during high school.

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07:38
Speaker 8
We have employers who partner with us and we tell them in our pitch to them. It's the scariest part and the most exciting part is you design it. You are the designer of this apprenticeship program.

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07:54
Speaker 4
So the companies that themselves actually design the content of this program. Yes, that is exciting and scary.

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08:02
Speaker 8
Yes. Because it's completely tailored to them. Every single employer's apprenticeship looks different.

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08:08
Speaker 4
Right.

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08:08
Speaker 8
So every single one gets to determine who they're looking for, what they're looking for, and then they get to train those young folks into that position that they, we hope they would then enter into full time when they graduate. But the model is the same in that they take one course, okay, about 144 hours of related instruction and 450 hours on the job which they complete while they are still in high school. They earn some type of a credential from that and then they graduate from high school. And our hope of course, is that they would then slide right into full time employment. The model with this is that it has to be some type of a career field where they can step, okay, so they can step up those credentials, they can step up within the company and grow.

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08:59
Speaker 8
So it's really about providing students and employers with some access that they might not have had previously and also giving them that chance to kind of explore some different options. So with that I'm going to stop because I'm going to ramble for the whole time if I don't and let you ask some questions, some more pointed questions that you can address.

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09:20
Speaker 4
Well, no, I think it's really important background. I think we're clear on these two different types of programs. One where it's happening all inside the school, the other where it's happening in conjunction with, you know, employers and where employers themselves are actually designing the program, which I think is, you know, it's an extremely exciting opportunity for employers today. So I'll just, you know, first off, Stacey, I want to cut you free so that you can focus on typing and engaging with the audience, you know, who've joined us live here and I'll bring you back live in 10 minutes or so. Something along those lines. Good. So. So how many different employers do you have involved in the program right now?

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10:06
Speaker 8
Right now with our youth apprenticeship, we have 47 different employer partners who are fully registered with the Department of Labor. So to do a full youth apprenticeship, you have to be registered with Department of Labor. You have to go before the board, get your program approved. We then with the education side msde, we can then award credits to the students for high school. They can earn up to four credits with this program. So we've got 47 who have registered and said yes, we want to work with Prince George's County.

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10:38
Speaker 4
Okay.

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10:38
Speaker 8
Now what's interesting with that though is I kind of compare it to like a dating website in that people sign up and they chat and then there's not a lot of follow through to that first date.

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10:52
Speaker 4
So not every, right, not everybody who's registered is what we might call engaged, Correct?

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10:58
Speaker 8
Correct. So we have two partners who are fully engaged. We have one who was our test program and they jumped right in last year and took our first Youth apprenticeship who has completed her program. And so we're excited for her. And we have another partner who is working with a pre apprenticeship and moving into the amp. And we're looking to fill 20 seats there this spring. Nice with apprentices. So it is moving. Part of this too is that we launched in the middle of a pandemic. So that was maybe not the ideal to try to do this in the midst of a pandemic, but were so excited that we got in our first year. We had 17 partners sign up our first year. We're up to 47 now.

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11:48
Speaker 4
You're getting people registered. We just need to get them to take that extra jump into becoming engaged. And what's the difference between being registered and engaged? Like what, you know, how do people cross that?

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12:03
Speaker 8
Yeah, they call me. You know, it's really that simple. Once they, once they've gotten registered with the state, that means the state has approved them, they are approved to work with us and we are approved to work with them. And really it is, it's just a phone call to me, it's an email to me and say, amy, here's our apprenticeship, here's who we're looking for. And then it becomes my job to go out to the schools and find that candidate. You know, we graduate nearly 8,000 students a year. And this is kind of what I tell employers is that like, oh, I don't know who we're going to find. I don't know if you're going to find the right person. I'm like, I got 8,000 candidates in front of me for you.

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12:41
Speaker 8
I think I can find one right out of that 8,000 who fits what it is that you're looking for.

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12:47
Speaker 4
So talk about supply and demand for a minute. Like, is that, you know, do you find that there's, that there are kids who are interested in.

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12:55
Speaker 8
We have so many students who are interested and who we're really focusing on. And I'm going to get into the education world at this point is we tend to have across the country, and Prince George's is representative of that. About 25% of our students who graduate out of high school graduate without a plan. They haven't applied, been accepted to a college. They haven't, you know, decided on the military. They don't have work lined up. And so we have about 25% of our students who graduate with not really knowing what the next step is. And so our focus is really there and letting them know that these are some other opportunities that are for you that are. Include work and education at the same time, and you can slide directly in from high school.

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13:46
Speaker 8
And so finding that group who now they're going into their senior year and they're like, what am I going to do? Okay, you know, those, that's kind of our target audience on our side is finding those students who have that motivation. They just haven't found the right fit and matching them up, you know, to those employers, you know, in a field that is of interest to them.

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14:11
Speaker 4
It seems to me, you know, I, I'm trying to flashback to, you know, my time finishing high school and, and, you know, the next steps that moment in time, I, I definitely stood side to side with, you know, good friends who were in that 25% of kids without a plan.

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14:35
Speaker 4
And it seems to me that when you, when you, you finish high school without moving into some next system, right, if the, the educational system is there to kind of provide you with structure and direction and, you know, whether you're into it or not, some sort of meaning, some sort something that you feel like you're, you're, you at least have a job to do if you finish that part of your life and you don't move into some structure and, you know, maybe it's college for some kids, but for those kids who don't end up in college if they're not going into another structure, I really, I, I feel like that is a path to, to some really unproductive years for a lot of those kids. Is that, is that what the stats say?

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15:29
Speaker 8
Yes, because now we're in the stats that I love. 70% of high school students say they're going to college and attempt college. 40% of that 70% drop out.

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15:45
Speaker 4
Right.

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15:46
Speaker 8
Because they don't have a plan. All right? And of that 25% who are kind of going, and I don't want to say going nowhere, it's just that they don't know where they're going yet. And this is why I like the youth apprenticeship model, because it's, it provides that bridge directly from high school into the world of employment. And I gave you the example the other day that I think is kind of indicative of why we need this type of thing, is many of our apprenticeship providers in those traditional apprenticeship programs, whether they be through a union or a merit shop, that have those kind of really detailed applications and long interview processes that take six to nine months before you get a decision you have that critical.

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16:33
Speaker 8
You must be 18 all right, and I gave you that example of we had a super brilliant, funny, great kid who was 17 when he graduated. He graduated at 17. He had a 3.8 GPA, he was bilingual, he was National Honor society, you know, completed our carpentry program and he couldn't get into an apprenticeship because he was 17.

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17:00
Speaker 4
Right, right.

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17:01
Speaker 8
So when I caught up with him, you know, because he had companies who said, come back to us when you're 18. And so when I reached out to him and I said, what are you doing? You know, did you go back to so and so? And did you know, how's that going? He said, and he was literally talking to me from the drive through window at McDonald's where he was working.

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17:24
Speaker 4
Man, I'm glad he went and got.

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17:25
Speaker 8
A job, but he wanted a job. He, that was his goal. You know, he wanted to go right to work. But because he, the age limit, you know, he didn't have that opportunity. And so we lost him out of this industry. You know, this kid who was highly motivated, really smart, really a go getter, we lost him. And so these are the type of, you know, these are the type of kids we're going after those kids who we need to get them into this structure and do it quickly.

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17:59
Speaker 4
How do we navigate that roadblock though, with, I mean, is it, aren't there insurance requirements? Is that, you know, what's the, if I'm an employer, you know, how do I get through that issue?

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18:12
Speaker 8
Well, there's, first of all, you know, the ones who come and say, oh, we just can't. Well, yes you can, because we did. Right. You know, we now are the example that yes, you can do this. You do need to work with your unions. If you're a union contractor, you do need to look at your insurance. If you're on federal contracts, yeah, there's going to be some jobs that those kids can't be on, but you need to be a little more creative in thinking about what can they do. Particularly if you're in an industry and you have partnerships or you're in an association where you have some fab shops, you know, and you can move them in, you know, maybe they're only 17 now.

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18:46
Speaker 8
And so for six months you work on the education side of it and then you move them into the workforce. So there are workarounds to this. There are insurance, you know, companies that lower that rider down to 16. So it really is working with, you know, with your own internal structure and looking at how do we make this work rather than we can't make it work.

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19:11
Speaker 4
Right, Right.

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19:11
Speaker 5
Right.

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19:12
Speaker 4
So your answer is try.

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19:17
Speaker 8
There are ways to make it work, right?

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19:20
Speaker 4
Yeah, because we do.

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19:21
Speaker 8
We have students who are on the job, you know, at 16, at 17. And so it is, it is possible. It takes a little bit of effort, but the effort's worth it. And I say that because we get people all the time coming from across the industry say, amy, we need people. We need people. We need you to send us more people. We need, we need more people. And at the same time, they say, oh, well, we get 500 applicants a year. You know, and I'm like, well, if you get 500 a year, where's that disconnect between the we need people. What you're saying is you need the right people, Right. You need those people who are interested, those people who have been vetted, who really want to go into this.

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20:06
Speaker 8
And, you know, the stat that really sticks out to me is the average age of a first year apprentice in this country is 27.

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20:15
Speaker 4
27 years old for a first year apprentice.

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20:18
Speaker 8
Average age across the industry.

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20:21
Speaker 5
Wow.

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20:22
Speaker 8
So imagine if you could get them at 17, that's 10 additional years of productivity.

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20:29
Speaker 4
Yeah. They're adjourning by the time they're what, 21 at that point or something along.

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20:34
Speaker 8
Those lines, you know, they've earned their license, they're out there, they're fully employed, and you're gaining 10 years of work experience, you're gaining productivity. And the average age of our construction industry is aging. Right. And so we keep hearing that we're going to need younger people, but if we keep putting those barriers up that you can't start until you're 18, you can't until this, you can't until that, you know, we're spiting ourselves.

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21:03
Speaker 4
Yeah, it's. Well, it's a huge. I, I mean, I can't tell you how many times, and I know you have too. I've heard the construction companies that I, you know, that I work with, frustrated that they can't, to your point, can't find people. There are actually a lot of them that I know that are, you know, intentionally not taking on work because they don't have the people to do the work. So there are, there's the drum beat there that says, we need people, we need people there. We have to somehow close this gap where we're actually, we're creating them. These people are coming. We have these people who are coming out of school and then Dropping into an abyss and going into a different industry. They were ready for you. That's mind blowing.

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21:50
Speaker 4
So, okay, so the youth program is your answer to that strategy, right? The youth apprenticeship program is a part of your answer to that strategy.

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21:59
Speaker 8
And part of it, too is. Is just some other things to think about, because I got to do the other little. Think about. As an educator, think about who you are excluding, okay, Maybe not intentionally, maybe subconsciously, somehow. 50% of the population in this country are women. How many women are in the construction industry actually in the trades?

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22:23
Speaker 4
Not enough.

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22:24
Speaker 8
Not enough. Not many at all. And part of that reason is how we market. Okay, how we market construction. You know, a little pink toolbox isn't your marketing tool, you know, so you need to be looking at, you know, how inclusive are you in who you're recruiting? Here in Prince George's county, we are a county that is 55% African American, our student body, and 37% Hispanic. The construction industry is 69% white.

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22:57
Speaker 4
Certainly in the management positions that would be, you know, coming out to the schools and saying, you know, hi, come, you know, I want to introduce you to ABC Electric, you know, come and get to know our organization or what have you. Yeah, we need people of color out in those schools. Right? We need. We need women out in those schools.

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23:19
Speaker 8
We need folks who are actually. We need. Again, it's the whole idea. If I can't see myself in that role, you know, it makes it that much harder. It doesn't mean I don't want it. It just makes it that much harder for me to. To make that next push and that next step. If I don't see anybody who. Who I can kind of model myself after. So really doing recruitment based on. On who the, you know, who's available, who's the pool of your applicants. And so having that representation is critically important when you're coming out to the schools, you know, and saying we have a place for you, and not just saying it, but showing it by showing me some people who look like my kids.

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23:59
Speaker 4
Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I mean, I think, you know, if I'm putting myself in the shoes of these employers and I'm picturing being one of these people who are, I don't know, maybe hesitant to bringing high school kids out on my jobs. What would you say to that? How has that actually worked in practice?

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24:27
Speaker 8
This is the most fun part for me when working with employers. When we launched this in the height of the pandemic, we had to pretty much do everything virtually and we had lots of partners who were willing to say, hey, I'll give you a few hours of my time. I'm willing to work with these kids. We'll work on their interview skills, you know, those type of things. And we got ready for this big, massive, you know, workshop series were doing. And so I had all these little partners lined up, and, you know, they've turned into good friends. And I had one say, amy, I'm a little scared. You know, I don't know kids. You know, I don't know teenagers. I don't know how this is gonna work.

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25:10
Speaker 8
And by the end of that series, they were like, this was the most fun I've ever had. They're like, these kids are so engaged. They ask interesting questions. They are enthusiastic. And that was. You know, the person who was scared was the first one to sign up and take a youth apprentice. And so it's really about engaging with the students, because if you have that stereotype in your mind of what a teenager is, you've got to go and break through that and talk to them as individual students. And we've had people come in who've come in to do presentations and say, we're not here to hire. We're not here to hire. We're just here to do this presentation. We're just here to talk to them about the industry.

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25:56
Speaker 8
And then by the end of their engagement in that class period time, they said, okay, that one over there, is he looking for work? Because he's really good. And, you know, so it's creating that engagement and to engage with students, talk to students, and realize that these are great kids, you know, who are fantastically interested, smart, engaged, and willing to go to work.

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26:24
Speaker 4
That's. I. I think, you know, again, the opportunities there, the interest is there, the talent is there, the training is happening there. There's a vehicle to do this. I hope that some of the. The folks, the potential employers that are watching this and that are listening to this are considering ways how they can get involved. Now, is this Prince George's County? Obviously, that's your focus, but if. Let's say I'm based in, you know, Hagerstown or heck, let's say I'm based in Kansas. You know, what do you know about these programs outside of your personal footprint?

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27:03
Speaker 8
Yeah, career and technical education is everywhere. You know, folks of my age may still refer to it as votech, early 20s or shop. Yeah, early 20s. Me. You know, you may still be looking at it as, you know, kind of that traditional old VO Tech model And that's one of the things we really need to get away from, because career and technical education is technical. All right. These are highly skilled jobs. I mean, you could. The biggest thing with the construction industry today is people still have this vision of what a plumber is. Right. And I think you can visualize in your head what I'm thinking, right, plumber. And that's not what most plumbers are and do. Right. So it's a. Both sides.

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27:49
Speaker 8
But if you're not in Prince George's county, if you are in Maryland, every county in Maryland has a CTE program, has a CTE department. Montgomery county, good friends with Sean over there who works with the apprenticeship program there. Anne Arundel, Charles county, all of us are doing it around the country. If you are looking to recruit, talk to your school's CTE department, call up that main number and say, I need whoever, you know, who's your CTE person, connect with them. We are always, always looking for ways to connect. And apprenticeship, youth apprenticeship is the big thing right now across the country. There's millions of dollars in federal money right now sitting there for employers to help fund their related instruction. To help fund, you know, some of the funding is available to help offset the cost of the salary.

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28:43
Speaker 8
So money is there, the interest is there, the will is there, the kids are there. You know, we just need to get them connected.

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28:53
Speaker 4
Yeah, there's just that integration that needs to happen between the educational sphere and the corporate sphere. Right. The industry itself. So I'm going to shut up. Stacy, what do you have for us?

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29:06
Speaker 5
Yeah, I have some questions. So you were talking about youth programs and trying to get people involved that way. I think when we talk to a lot of contractors, they take the easy way out and they participate in career fairs. Not saying that career fairs aren't beneficial, but when you compare the two, I just wanted to see what your thoughts are because having participated myself and career fairs, I feel like it's very intimidating for high school students and also for us. We're meeting them for the first time and, you know, we're having really short conversations. The students don't really know what to ask us. They're, you know, very intimidated. So with a youth program, I feel like you can connect more on another level if you could kind of speak to that.

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29:53
Speaker 8
Yeah, nothing against career fairs, because we need those too. We just need them at the middle school. Right. We need to start doing those at the middle schools. We need to make them hands on. We need to, you know, instead of just handing out A little brochure and saying, I'm Stacy, you know, and this is my industry. Show me. Right? That's the biggest thing with catching kids interest is giving them something to do. And so we definitely need that engagement and we need it younger and we need it also to involve the parents. So that's part of our marketing strategy this year around CTE as a whole is creating more community events, community wide events where you can come out and try cte. You know, you can do some hands on pieces to that. And then that leads us to that youth apprenticeship model.

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30:42
Speaker 8
Because now you have employers who go, oh, wow, this was fun, right? I enjoyed this. These kids aren't so bad. They're not scary, right? They're engaged, they're doing the work and the kids get a feel and the parents get a feel. Because again, we in the educational world did a really fantastic job over the 50 years of selling the idea that you to be successful, to have a good career, you got to go to college. All right, we sold that so well, right. That, you know, I went to college, I went three times. None of those times that I went until the last one had anything to do with finding a career.

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31:22
Speaker 4
Yeah.

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31:23
Speaker 8
Okay. And so we have students who are going to college because they think that's the only pathway for them. And so doing more of those career fairs, doing more of those hands on engagement, showing parents that here are these alternatives. What I call the higher education you're not thinking about. Because that's what apprenticeship is. It is higher education. You're coming out with a license, you're coming out with a degree, and you're doing it without the debt.

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31:50
Speaker 4
All right?

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31:50
Speaker 8
Average student graduates or doesn't graduate out of college carrying $30,000 of debt. And if you're going into a career field that starts you off at 35, $40,000 and you're already carrying $30,000 of debt, maybe you want to look at an alternative.

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32:07
Speaker 4
You know, my brother went to VO Tech because he's from that era. Right? We are. And my brother went to Votech and was a mason, went through their masonry program. And when he finished, he was a super smart kid who just could not fathom the idea of going to school to, of getting good grades for good grade sake. He wasn't, you know, really interested in going to college or what. You know, everything for him had to have purpose. And so that program was a lifesaver for him. And he would tell you that today was absolute lifesaver for him. When he finished High school and was actually inspired to go to college for.

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32:49
Speaker 4
For a construction management degree because he could now see a very clear connection between what he was learning and what, how he wanted to apply that, you know, in a management sphere. And, and he came out of college, started his own business, which he's, you know, been running for 20 some years. He's an employer. And I mean, he's. This is the perfect example of. And, and I remember it was, you know, a visitation night when he was in middle school to the Votech that changed his life. And that was it. Like he saw it and was like, that's what I want. That's what I need in my life. If I don't get that, I'm never going to make it out of school. And, and I'm certain that's true. Knowing him, I'm certain that's true.

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33:33
Speaker 8
And it comes back again. And it's a, it's a culture as well in our country that we've elevated certain careers, you know, as being professional and as being, you know, respectable, you know, and people aren't looking. And parents, I mean, bless parents, you know, they want the best for their kids. Right. You know, there's not a parent out there who doesn't want the best possible for their child. But we have an image of what that is. Right. And of what success is in this country. And so it's really also changing that cultural mindset of what success is. You know, if I'm a successful business owner, because I started out as a Mason, right? Dang. That's the American story, right, that you came up, you used your hands, you used your mind, you created this business. You're now an employer.

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34:28
Speaker 8
You know, you're contributing, you know, in multiple different ways to your community. And so we really need to be talking about changing that mindset of our culture as well, of what we consider to be success.

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34:41
Speaker 4
No question. Stacy, probably time for one more.

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34:44
Speaker 5
Yeah, I was just gonna say if we could just close out. Mark made some great points and so has a couple people in the audience here, but I was thinking back to previous episodes we have. And not to put you on the spot, Chad, so if you don't remember, that's fine. There was some type of statistic on how most construction companies are small businesses with a certain amount of employees. I don't know if you remember, 25.

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35:10
Speaker 4
Yeah, about 25 employees. Yeah.

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35:12
Speaker 5
So I think for those businesses, they get intimidated with this.

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35:16
Speaker 8
They.

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35:16
Speaker 5
They kind of leave it up to the larger businesses to participate in this type of thing. So how would you encourage a small business with maybe limited resources, but it's still important to them because they have to recruit candidates to participate in your program.

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35:34
Speaker 8
We have those folks, right, Those folks who. One way to do it, I mean, I'm going to give you two examples. So one way to do it is if you're a merit shop, if you're an independent contractor, join with your local association, you know, who pull those resources, all those resources. Here in Prince George's county, you know, we have builders and contractors, you know, who offers classes. You can go through the union. So there's lots of different opportunities and ways to kind of pool that cost. Right. But we also have some independent contractors who we've had relationships with over the years who call me up every spring and say, hey, Amy, I'm ready for another one. You know, they take them on as a helper. They take them on in that initial position.

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36:21
Speaker 8
They say if they make it past six months, going to pay for them to go into an apprenticeship because they've shown me that work ethic. And so it's doable. It is scary. There is a risk. Right. And you don't know what your return on investment is going to be. So that's part of why we do the vetting process. You know, nobody gets to you employer until they've come through me from our programs. So they go through the school, all right, they go through the teachers, they get their recommendations and then they've got to sit with me and convince me that they really want to go in and do this. So that vetting process is helpful. It's not just blindly putting out there, you know, an ad, I need a helper position and hoping you find somebody.

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37:08
Speaker 8
You kind of have a built in recruiter with your school system. Awesome.

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37:15
Speaker 4
All right, folks, we've gone over, but I think for good reason and it's well deserved. So, Amy, thank you so much. Keep doing what you're doing. It's awesome. Important work. Your passion for it shines through. I think I'd love to have you on next year and hear that you've vastly increased the number of engaged youth program participants. And it would really make me happy if some of the people who were, you know, our audience today and subsequent today, you know, who are watching this and listening to this after the fact reach out to you. Amy, if people want to get in touch, how should they do that?

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37:58
Speaker 8
It's very simple. You can go right there. You put up our website, right? It's pgcps.org cte. You can learn about all of our CTE programs. You can watch our videos. You've got about five days worth of content in there. You can read or you can reach out to me directly. And my email is very Simply Amy Rock. GCPS.org and so we are always looking to engage and even if you just have questions, right. If you're somewhere around the country and you're like, wow, that sounds like something we'd like to do here. You know, sharing is caring, and that's what we do in education, is we build each other so we work with our counterparts in our surrounding counties. And it's all about building up these opportunities for students.

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38:50
Speaker 8
So always happy to help, always happy to engage with whomever has questions or maybe has a job for one of my kids.

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39:00
Speaker 4
Let's go.

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39:00
Speaker 5
Thank you.

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39:01
Speaker 4
I hope that happens. Let's, let's get that happening. That's wonderful. Thanks so much, Amy. Stacy, let's talk a little bit about next week. So next week we've got an incredible, I mean, I, I, you couldn't even, you're the best producer. You couldn't have staged this better. Have one after the next. So next week we're talking with Mark Perna, who is a renowned speaker and author, who talks about unleashing the power of the youth in the workforce. So talk about a complimentary conversation. Next week's show, we're going to be digging in with Mark about sort of the mindsets and the habits that we need to develop to start unlocking the potential of the youth in the workforce so that we can take what Amy's given us and start to really put it to practice.

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39:51
Speaker 4
I think Mark is going to help immensely with that, so don't miss that Live. It's going to be a lot of fun. If you can't join live, obviously, just make sure that you catch us on YouTube or here on LinkedIn, on, you know, the Replay or even on Spotify, podcasts. Stacy, has there, is there anything that I've missed? Is there anything that you want to say to wrap up?

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40:13
Speaker 5
No, but I have seen Mark Perna Live in Action speaking, and he's an excellent keynote speaker. So I don't think you're gonna have a problem with next week's episode. He's very entertaining and he has a great story to share.

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40:28
Speaker 4
Yeah, I, I, it was kind of like my preparation with Amy, where I could tell it was just pull the string and stand back. They're passionate and they're great. So, yeah, Mark's exactly the same way. It'll be great. Thanks so much.

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40:41
Speaker 5
All right, have a great day.

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