INSPIRING PROGR AM


Opportunity Build Offers Pathways to Rewarding Careers


BY CAROL EATON T


his September, a cohort of 37 students including 15 women graduated from an inspiring


Bay Area construction career pathways program known as Opportunity Build. Representing the largest class since the Oakland-based nonprofit Rising Sun Center for Opportunity launched the pre-apprenticeship training program nearly a decade ago, many of those stu- dents had already secured well-paying construction trades apprenticeship jobs before they even graduated. Opportunity Build has established a


strong track record over the years. Rising Sun created its precursor program, Green Energy Training Services, in 2009, and it became a multi-craft core curriculum (MC3) program in 2014. In total, the program has trained over 1,000 partici- pants since its inception including over


6


CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023


570 individuals since 2014. Opportunity Build is focused on helping women, people of color and individuals in reentry explore and attain lucrative and fulfilling employment in the union construction trades. Students receive a mix of hands-on construction training along with life skills training and support services – all designed to break down barriers and help them build not just a sustainable career but a better life for themselves and their families.


Bringing Women into the Trades Approximately half of the program’s graduates are women, who help fill critical roles in the traditionally male dominated skilled trades market sector. Women are increasingly discovering the life-changing benefits associated with


working in a well-paying and rewarding field in which equitable pay rates are fixed by experience level – regardless of race, gender, or background. Te program offers three 10- to 12- week sessions each year, including one of the nation’s only all-female sessions dubbed “Women Building the Bay,” which kicks off each February. Students earn their first aid MC3 and OSHA 10 certificates while also learning essential life skills such as financial capability, communication, job-seeking skills, in- terview practice, resume writing, and networking. Job fairs and various outreach ef-


forts with unions and contractors who support Opportunity Build have helped place students as apprentices in up to 28 different union construction trades affiliated with the program.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28