Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters Accepts $47,000 Grant for Sisters in the Brotherhood Pre-Apprentice Program

BALTIMORE, Md., July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters' (NRCC) Mid-Atlantic Carpenters' Training Center was recently awarded a grant from the Baltimore Office of Workforce Development for $47,389 for its Sisters in the Brotherhood (SIB) Pre-Apprentice Program in Baltimore.

The grant will help the NRCC and the Mid-Atlantic Carpenters' Training Center to recruit and train women interested in carpentry in the Baltimore area. The grant funds a number of aspects of the program, including hiring skilled instructors and purchasing materials for carpentry and welding classes, including boots, carpentry tools and workbooks.

"Our Pre-Apprentice Program has been very successful in New Jersey, and we want to continue that momentum and expand it to an area where we can provide more women with the opportunity to learn about the carpentry industry," said Susan Schultz, NRCC Council Representative and Chair of the Sisters in the Brotherhood committee. "Our Sisters in Brotherhood program is helping to break through barriers and overcome previously held perceptions that construction jobs could only be filled by men. That's something we are trying to change, because our organization believes that jobs don't have a gender."

Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters' SIB program is an eight-week training course that prepares women to become carpenter apprentices. The 40-hour per week course trains women carpenters in a variety of in-class curriculum and hands-on training in mathematics, occupational safety and hazards, hand/power tool training and job-site culture. After successful completion of the program, women carpenters graduate to the NRCC Apprenticeship program. The Pre-Apprentice program, which has been in existence since 2016, recently graduated its fifth class of women to the Apprentice Program within the NRCC.

Timothy Miller, Director of the Mid-Atlantic Training Center, feels that having a SIB Pre-Apprenticeship Program in Baltimore will give women a chance to enter a field that many fail to consider.

"We are so grateful to the Baltimore Office of Workforce Development for this grant, as it will give us the ability to introduce women in the Baltimore area to the benefits of a career in carpentry," said Miller. "It is time to dismiss misconceptions about women joining the carpentry workforce and we're hopeful that a program in Baltimore will help us to continue to do just that."

To learn more about the Sisters in the Brotherhood Pre-Apprentice Program, please visit www.northeastcarpenters.org/sisters

About the NRCC

The Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters (NRCC) represents nearly 40,000 hardworking men and women in Delaware and New Jersey and portions of Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania. NRCC is one of the largest trade unions on the East Coast. The NRCC equips professional men and women carpenters with the skills, training and quality workmanship that are demanded in today's construction industry. For more information on NRCC, please visit our website: www.northeastcarpenters.org; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NortheastRegionalCouncilofCarpenters; or Twitter: https://twitter.com/nrccarpenters.

SOURCE Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters (NRCC)

Related Links

http://www.northeastcarpenters.org