Kalamazoo, Regional and National Highlights
The RCAR Program, which stands for Road Construction Apprenticeship Readiness Program, is a training program to prepare workers to develop the skills necessary to enter into a career in road construction. While it does not actually train workers in construction skills, it does familiarize them with similar logic tests. A key component of the RCAR program is that it specifically targets underrepresented populations, including women, low-income residents, and racial minorities.
Participants enrolled complete an intensive five-week program that included 150 hours of training in job readiness skills, applied math, computer applications, blueprint reading, workplace safety, and overview of the road construction trades. Assessment and training was coordinated through Michigan Works! Agencies. Candidates were selected from three targeted areas with the highest percentage of road construction projects: Metro Detroit, Southwest Michigan (Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor), and the Saginaw-Midland-Bay area.
Carpenter Chad Miller talks to a group about the realities of the construction industry at a RCAR informational session.
UPDATE:
September 9th, 2009
RCAR Program sees bright future in Southwest Michigan
Last week, a meeting around RCAR Program revealed a bright future in Southwest Michigan. The RCAR Program, which stands for Road Construction Apprenticeship Readiness, places disadvantaged populations, such as racial minorities, women and low-income individuals into training programs that prepare them for apprenticeships in the construction industry.
As many are aware, construction jobs require hard work, but are coveted because of the generally high wages they provide. For those in disadvantaged communities, it is an opportunity to enter a well-paying career to last a significant portion of their life.
At the meeting, it was announced that the Michigan Department of Transportation would not only renew the RCAR Program, but that they in fact would hire and place 20 RCAR graduates on their own budget. This came as great news to supporters, as it essentially relieves the group of searching out a significant portion of opportunities for the graduates to participate in.
What is still uncertain is the amount of participants that will be accepted into the program this year and next. Will RCAR look to place more than 20 graduates in Southwest Michigan? It will likely depend on the amount of construction work available, but it is likely that 20 disadvantaged residents from Southwest Michigan will find themselves in apprenticeships in the near future.
More updates will come on this program when available. Stay tuned.
RCAR Results from Cass, Van Buren & Berrien Counties
The Road Construction Apprenticeship Readiness (RCAR) Program, was a success for Lake Michigan College and Berrien, Cass, Van Buren, Michigan Works! Sixteen participants were required to be at the Lake Michigan College, MTEC facility to class forty-hours a week for eight weeks. Among a long list of criteria; all candidates were required to be Bronze Michigan National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) holders. For a program completion certificate, one goal was to have all participants leave as Gold Michigan National Career Readiness Certificate holders.
The participants had over 40+ hours of assessment preparation time using tools like Keytrain, Keytrain Paper Workbooks, WorkKeys Pre-tests and many hours of classroom instruction to advance their foundational skill levels in Applied Mathematics, Reading for Information and Locating Information.
Program NCRC Statistics
Sixteen Program Graduates:
Out of all of the WorkKeys Assessments administered; 46 of 48 WorkKeys Assessments were passed at or above a Level 5. Which means that only two program participants are one point; on one WorkKeys Assessment to become Gold NCRC holders.
Walking out of the classroom each individual is aware of what a Michigan National Career Readiness Certificate is. After the hard work they put in, they are proud to put their myworkkeys.com link on their resume and more notably they understand the significance of why they should have a certificate.
For more information on WorkKeys/NCRC and Lake Michigan College please contact Amber Badgley at abadgley@lakemichigancollege.edu.
RCAR Kalamazoo Pictures
