Christina Harms tried a lot of jobs before finding her current career path.
“I’m a union painter,” she said. "My typical day is coming in, getting an area that needs to be finished. We start with priming, sanding, finish, coat. It's fast-paced [and] keeps you moving throughout the day. Then, of course, in construction, there's constantly little projects that we get pulled aside to do too. So I could be one day painting a typical wall. The next day, I could be doing stencil work.”
Harms, from Pekin, works for Peoria-based Mid-Illinois Companies and Associated Constructors in Bloomington. She can be seen on construction sites throughout Bloomington-Normal, including the future home of Illinois State University’s College of Engineering on G.E. Road.
Now, Harms is telling her story through the Apprentice Ambassador Program, a workforce development initiative hosted by the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board’s Work-Based Learning and Apprenticeship Committee.
The program trains a cohort of people to speak on the apprenticeship model as a college alternative and career development tool.
Star apprentices
Work Force Innovation Coordinator Antonio Gómez, from the Center for Specialized Professional Support based at Illinois State University, said at first, each cohort of "Star Apprentices" tends to focus on advocating to people younger than them—often tailoring the message for high school students and early career folks.
“We don't want to take that away from them, but there will always be more people who want to get into apprenticeships," said Gómez. "The piece that we want to provide is to teach them how to go from talking to their peers to talking to business people and CEOs. We teach them PR and public speaking, and a few other things like personal finance and other things that are just, good for them in their careers, because we really do want for them to be leaders.”
That includes speaking at business engagement events across the state, appearing in local media outlets [like this one] and engaging in professional development—all at no cost to the cohort.
Not just 'a man's job'
Harms has two degrees and stayed home with her kids before going to school for her medical coding and billing certificate.
“I knew of apprenticeships. I didn't really realize how important they were,” she said.
Harms first entered the trade as a nonunion painter, but said the benefits weren’t good, among other downsides.
“Being a woman that does this kind of work, you're not treated as fairly,” she said. "I wasn't even allowed to touch a sprayer at my nonunion job. That was a 'man's job,' is what they call it. And they kind of joked around about it, but to me, it was really offensive.”
Still, Harms felt some hesitation about joining the union.
“I was kind of intimidated, because you don't really see a lot of women working construction, or you don't really feel like you do,” she said. “I ran into quite a few since I've started, but women in construction are very far and few between. I talked to a couple people, and then just decided to heck with it—I'm going to do it. And it's been one of the best decisions I've ever made.”
Beyond the trades
Jalissa Jones, also from ISU's Center for Specialized Professional Support, said people tend to think of apprenticeships being exclusively related to trades, but that's not always the case.
“Another really vital part of this program is the idea of changing people's minds about what apprenticeships and what apprentices look like,” she said. “It can be in medical field. It could be in cybersecurity or insurance. There's a lot of insurance apprenticeships, which is not something I knew before I started working at this job.…I think that is the forward face of apprenticeship.”
Others in Harms' cohort represent a variety of industries, advocating for apprenticeships in insurance, teaching and business. There's a career specialist, a diesel service technician and someone working in cybersecurity for McDonald's.
Jones said there's a need for other opportunities besides college, and the need for apprenticeships should be more well known and normalized.
“Why should they be stuck in these fast food, retail [jobs]? It's fine, but we all know it's very underpaid and overworked, and it's not family sustaining wages," she said. "They shouldn't be relegated to these positions for the rest of their lives because of circumstances that were out of their control. So I think that the sound the apprenticeship provides such a incredible path and outlet for them to find a job and a career that they can learn and they can grow in, and they can be not only like financially satisfied in, but personally satisfied and fulfilled in.”
Star Apprentice applications are open year-round to all Illinois apprentices, and recent apprenticeship graduates. The ambassadors are then supported by their employer sponsor, to ultimately pair with a member from the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board's committee to gain a mentor and networking opportunities.
Gomez said promoting apprenticeships is mutual beneficial to employers.
“Through a four-year program, you can approximate what you need in terms of like, we need somebody who knows about business, but you can't be as specific as you can with an apprenticeship and your needs," he said. "That’s why the state is really pushing apprenticeships, because they get people into jobs quicker than when you're a student, and they get businesses to be able to fill their positions and take responsibility for their like own future, and the state is here to help with that money and expertise to help that work.”
