By Tom Chorneau
Headquarters public information officer
Marjani Rollins and her team at Caltrans’ Small Business & Workforce Development Center are in the business of changing lives.
Rollins oversees an extensive array of job training programs aimed at minority and under-represented groups in the industry that have been highly successful, including the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Supportive Services, On-the-Job Training, National Summer Transportation Institute, and the On-the-Job Training Supportive Services (OJT/SS).
On the horizon is another challenge – starting a related training program that would turn former prison inmates into ironworkers.
Toward that end, Caltrans received a $238,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration last month as seed money for the program.
The social benefits aside, the new ironworker training is also intended to help address a stubborn shortage of workers in the trade, especially those who can work on the kinds of highway projects overseen by Caltrans.
Ironworkers, who are responsible for bending, cutting and connecting iron and steel used to support bridges, roads and other structures, are in high demand all over the country. Over the next 10 years, jobs for ironworkers are expected to grow about 4 percent, with 7,500 openings projected annually, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A separate program launched in 2023 is aimed at training women and other under-represented groups as heavy equipment operators. The heavy equipment academy can boast a 100 percent graduation rate.
“It is more than gratifying to see how a student’s outlook on life can change from the beginning of the class until the end,” said Stephen Oliva, Workforce Development branch chief and a key member of Rollins’ team.
Expectations are that their success with the heavy equipment program will help with organizing the new ironworker training.
Rollins said they hope to have the ironworker program up and running sometime this year at the development center in Sacramento.
Like the school that teaches heavy equipment operations, the coming ironworker training will likely have small classes – about 10 students per session. Under the terms of the federal grant, the school will need to place at least 75 percent of the graduates into jobs by the second year.
In addition to former inmates, the ironworker program will be open to underserved populations. Along with job training, there are plans to provide participants with child care, transportation and career development services.