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CMCL Interview: Jennifer Dewees
57 Plays5 months ago
In this episode of Changing Minds & Changing Lives, Julie Sowash talks with Jennifer Dewees, Executive Director of MCCEI, about how the construction industry is evolving to meet a critical workforce shortage—and why it’s becoming a powerful, inclusive pathway for Gen Z, women, and people with disabilities.
Jennifer shares how Maryland is leading the way with apprenticeship programs that offer debt-free, hands-on careers in the built environment. They dive into how neurodiverse individuals are thriving in construction, and how MCCEI’s partnership with Kennedy Krieger Institute is helping organizations better support alternative learning styles and accessible workplaces.
Highlights include:
- 40% of the construction workforce is retiring—who will replace them?
- Earn-and-learn apprenticeships with no student debt
- Breaking down barriers for women and people with disabilities
- Why construction is ideal for neurodiverse workers
- Gen Z’s rise as the “Toolbelt Generation”
Changing Minds & Changing Lives is produced by Disability Solutions, a nonprofit consulting firm and job board that partners with global brands to drive inclusive hiring and disability-inclusive talent strategies.
Thank you to our episode sponsor, the Maryland Center for Construction Education and Innovation (MCCEI).
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome back to the Changing Minds, Changing Lives podcast. My name is Julie Sowash. I am the strategic advisor and founder of Disability Solutions and the CEO of Catch-22 Group.
00:00:18
Speaker
We're so excited to have you all back. um Before we get started today, I want to just call out the last episode, depending on where you are in your listening track.
Highlight on Neurodivergence Discussion
00:00:28
Speaker
A couple weeks ago, we had a Changing Minds, Changing Lives takeover ah with a former guest, Grant Harris, who if you haven't listened to his episode, definitely go take a listen.
00:00:39
Speaker
um And he actually brought some guests on with him, um two guest hosts, and he had a conversation that I think is so worth a listen and is actually going to converge with the conversation we have today.
00:00:50
Speaker
um But really, the the conversation covered neurodivergence in communities of color, um titling the episode, Seen But Not Heard. It's really powerful. And the work that Grant does and the way that he talks about his disability and disability in ah communities of color is so thought-provoking and so worth our time. So definitely go check out the takeover from June 17th, 2025.
First Sponsorship Announcement
00:01:15
Speaker
And you know just before we get started again today,
00:01:19
Speaker
We actually have our episode being sponsored, which is so exciting. It's our first ah sponsored episode. And we are in partnership with the Maryland Center for Construction, Education and Innovation, known MCCEI. And it's an independent workforce intermediary providing opportunities and resources designed to uplift and support individuals from all backgrounds and built environment careers.
00:01:47
Speaker
And not many of you know this, but my dad, Greg, was a crane operator on some of the skyscrapers that we now see dotting the skyline in Indianapolis, where I'm from. And then he went on to be a part of the local labor union supporting ah heavy equipment operators. He taught me the value that labor brings to our communities and how strongly built workforce programs can not just build amazing pipelines of talent, but also provide talented young people with long and successful careers in the trades.
Guest Introduction: Jennifer DeWeese
00:02:19
Speaker
So with that being said, I'm so excited to introduce our guest today, Jennifer DeWeese. ah Jennifer is a nonprofit construction workforce development leader, DEI advocate.
00:02:32
Speaker
and thought leader in workforce development and built environment spaces. She is the president of MCCEI, co-founder and construction lead of Maryland's Apprenticeship Connector.
00:02:45
Speaker
She has been recognized as a daily record top 100 in Maryland, BBJ's Women Who Mean Business, I love that, Construction and Dive's top 33 women in construction, and Crew Baltimore's Women of Influence.
00:03:00
Speaker
Wow. and has been featured in multiple media publications. She's dedicated to expanding apprenticeships, connecting job seekers with industry leaders, and strengthening Maryland's talent pipeline.
00:03:13
Speaker
And she just got back from Paris. Welcome to Changing Minds, Changing Lives, Jennifer. ah Thank you for having me. yeah Thank you so much. So tell us a little bit about all of those words that I just said, what does that mean? What does MCCEI do?
00:03:32
Speaker
And how does it help develop those incredible talent pipelines we were talking about?
MCCEI's Mission and Workforce Challenges
00:03:37
Speaker
So at MCCI, our mission is to connect um and educate a diverse population to careers in the built environment.
00:03:46
Speaker
And when we say built environment, it's anything man-made. um So it could be architecture, engineering, construction management, and the skilled trades. Because you may or may not be aware, but by 2030, 40% of our current construction workforce will retire.
00:04:03
Speaker
And only one person is coming in for every four that retire into the industry. We have seen a swing, an upswing when it comes to Gen Z and their interest in skilled trades and the construction industry in general.
00:04:17
Speaker
but we are definitely about to hit a workforce cliff and it is coming vastly
Apprenticeship Programs in Maryland
00:04:24
Speaker
approaching. So we have been working on this for the last 15 years at MCCI and we've made a lot of major progress and Maryland is doing some really amazing things to support alternative pathways to success for its students and um career seekers.
00:04:40
Speaker
um We have a long way to go. It's the story of our life, right? There's always more work to be done. And i mean, I think that's just incredible. you know, as someone who lives in Europe, at at least part of the year, i can see here in our workforce development, how important apprenticeships are, especially through the trade, skilled labor construction, all of those things.
00:05:04
Speaker
And yet I think as Americans, we don't see or talk about the importance of apprenticeships, journeymen, those kind of of actual pathways into careers nearly as often as we talk about the importance of having a college diploma, college degree.
00:05:24
Speaker
Can you tell me a little bit more about how you've built apprenticeship programs and what kind of an impact do they make on your local community? Yeah, so we're really lucky here in Maryland in that the state um government and education system is aligned in realizing that college is not for everyone.
00:05:44
Speaker
um And that is not to say that college is not a valuable pathway. We absolutely believe in college. In fact, there are a lot of built environment careers in which you need to go to college. You need to go to college to be an engineer and an architect um and and a lot of and construction management as well.
00:06:00
Speaker
um But there are pathways um that have both. right An apprenticeship program, especially in Maryland, but many um most states also include college um credit. um A lot of our community colleges here have apprenticeships.
00:06:15
Speaker
um And a lot of our apprenticeship providers, um like unions and associated builders and contractors, include college credit. So it's not an either or option. It's it's an and.
00:06:26
Speaker
um and If you can get your employer to pay for your school, which is what an apprenticeship program is, i mean, it it it's a no-brainer to me. And I wish it's something that somebody had mentioned to me when I was in school because I don't know about you, but it took me 20 years to pay off my college loans.
00:06:44
Speaker
um And it took me a very long time to get to the salary that apprentices are getting to.
The Blueprint for Maryland's Future Initiative
00:06:51
Speaker
So here in Maryland, we have what's called the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, and it is um an initiative around revamping Maryland's higher education and K-12 school system.
00:07:05
Speaker
And one of the pillars is ah around college and career readiness, and it says that by 2031, 45% of graduating seniors will have received an industry-recognized credential um and or um participated in the youth portion of a registered apprenticeship program.
00:07:23
Speaker
And so in Maryland, that means that you can start your adult registered apprenticeship while you're still in high school. um Many people may not realize that a lot of high school seniors don't have a full course load um anymore when they've, when they've, their last year. They're leaving, you know, they're working half, they're going to half days, basically.
00:07:43
Speaker
um And we've been really lucky in that um school systems are, are motivated to get these kids working. um and to get them that experience.
00:07:54
Speaker
And we're seeing employers that are really embracing that and um unions and other apprenticeship programs are doing that. So kids are or starting off at, you know, usually that summer between senior ah junior and senior year um as apprentices with like their local union.
00:08:13
Speaker
or um electrical um alliance or something like that, and making good money um and starting that um four-year journey towards their journey workers license um and finishing up.
00:08:26
Speaker
um We've seen some apprenticeship programs. The average AVID apprentice in the the United States of America is 30. thirty Think about that's 12 years of lost time from when you graduate from high school.
00:08:39
Speaker
Well, now we have programs in Maryland that the average age has dropped 24 years old because of this increased um push towards having teenagers.
00:08:50
Speaker
And there's a misconception too, that you can't hire somebody under the age of 18 for a construction job because of the hazards, but that's actually incorrect as long as they're in an apprenticeship program. So we've seen a really great success.
00:09:04
Speaker
We have kids that are, you know, 22 years old and buying their first home and trucks. And I was much, much older when I did all of that. Um, and,
00:09:16
Speaker
I guess, but but let me back up for a second, explain exactly what an apprenticeship program is. Because even in the construction industry, there's a misconception. We have more apprenticeship programs than any other industry out there, but still the industry doesn't 100% understand.
00:09:30
Speaker
It's similar to a trade school in which you're learning, um you know, learning a trade, but the difference between a trade school and an apprenticeship program and a trade school, there's a tuition just like college that you're paying and you're usually paying a for profit institute to train you in a trade. And there's nothing wrong with that. Right.
00:09:50
Speaker
um But an apprenticeship program, it is a state registered um program. Usually um in Maryland here, the state of Maryland has and ah um a registered program that they take the curriculum, they make sure that it's um industry recognized.
00:10:06
Speaker
um It is taught by third party. So either a union hall, um like they're called JATCs, or a community college, or an employer um could be the curriculum provider. The curriculum is provided to the apprentice, the completely free of charge.
00:10:26
Speaker
There's no, um, and there's no, um, debt either. If you quit your job tomorrow, oh, and forgot to put into that part, you are fully employed while you're going through it. So basically you have a full-time employment and you either go to class, like sometimes depending on the organization, maybe you take a day out of, um, the week to, to go to, to do your classroom portion of learning.
00:10:50
Speaker
or it's a nighttime class, or it's on the weekend. It all depends on on um how the program's working. um But if you decide it's not for you anymore and you quit, you don't owe anybody any money either.
00:11:01
Speaker
I mean, it's really a win-win for the apprentices. um And the cool part about an apprenticeship program is as you advance in your program, your pay increases too.
00:11:11
Speaker
um You have full benefits. um We heard recently that um From IBW, that's the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, um somebody that finishes in their apprenticeship program will have earned $300,000 in the lifetime of their apprenticeship program.
00:11:30
Speaker
Wow. Wow. how much money does it cost to go to college? um There's literally no debt. um I mean, it's just, it's it's kind of crazy to think that you're 22 years old and you have amassed that amount of money.
00:11:45
Speaker
um So it really is the wave of the future. There's been a ton of, um research and energy in the state the United States going into Europe and seeing um how the European model, the Swiss, ah swiss for example, um they have an amazing and apprenticeship program and system over there that we are trying to emulate here in America and and it seems to be working.
00:12:11
Speaker
Amazing. Amazing. So you gave me a couple of pieces of education there. um One is that there are opportunities for higher education along with learning a trade-in and an apprenticeship at the same time, which I think is truly incredible.
00:12:27
Speaker
um But the other piece that really blew me away is the lack of debt. um I, like you, just got done paying for that lovely college education that I got um well more than I paid for it after all those loans got paid for.
00:12:45
Speaker
um you know And I think that's really exciting because in America, again, we've – and I don't know if it started with me as like Gen X or my generation as Gen X where it was like all of a sudden – not going into trades or construction or labor became uncool. It it became like kind of a less than sort of way that we looked at people.
00:13:11
Speaker
um But I think we have an entire generation of of adults that really missed out on opportunities because all of a sudden the the line that we were being told is the only thing that mattered was that four-year degree.
Shifts in Societal Views on Education and Trades
00:13:28
Speaker
100%. interestingly, i was part of a um ah cohort funded by the Harbor Freight Leadership Lab, and they did some research, like, where did this change happen? And it actually happened under the Reagan administration.
00:13:42
Speaker
There was a report called a Nation at Risk, and it talked about our education system. And it's funny because I grew up in the 80s, right? um And, you know, and I remember my family talking about how we weren't keeping up as a country with like Japan and Germany when it came to math. it goes And I remember that, like that was ah the narrative of my childhood was we had to go to college, we had to keep up.
00:14:07
Speaker
on the global scale of ah the economy. And as such, you're right, we stopped funding um shop classes and CTE e and everything like that um as a country.
00:14:17
Speaker
um And now we're seeing a so ah swing back. I think you know the rubber band was pulled too far um and now we're hopefully getting back to um a happy medium and realizing without a skilled workforce, our country is literally going to crumble.
00:14:31
Speaker
um and um And honestly, The skilled workforce never went away. It just wasn't talked about. um we We obviously still have people in the construction industry. We have a major deficit when it comes to, we have like 600,000 open positions in the United States of America right now um in the construction industry.
00:14:50
Speaker
your It is during COVID. We saw it was an essential um workforce. People didn't lose jobs in the construction industry because we didn't stop working. It is essential. Without that, without bridges, without roads, without hospitals, without schools, life would not would cease to exist as we know it.
00:15:08
Speaker
So it is exciting to see that Gen z is embracing careers in the built environment and not just our industry, but just skilled careers in general.
00:15:20
Speaker
Gen Z is being called the tool belt generation. ah because they care about skills-based education. So if they're gonna go to college, they want a nursing degree, they want an accounting degree, they want like a skill when they come out.
00:15:36
Speaker
um And then we're also seeing so many more. um I think college enrollment has decreased for the first time in a generation, um for the first time ever.
00:15:47
Speaker
Wow. and And I mean, college education is getting to a place where it's truly unaffordable for many of us. um And as I said, you know grew up in a blue collar family, auto unions, auto workers, electricians. My great grandfather was a member of the IBEW.
00:16:06
Speaker
um the IUOE, I can go through all of the acronyms that that make up my labor union life. um and And I grew up just fine. um And there was absolutely no um shame and that i didn't come from college educated background. I didn't come from a college educated family until I remember getting probably into my late teens, early 20s, when all of a sudden, you know, that kind of stigmatism came, or stigma came into the conversation. I was the first person in my family to graduate from college. So it it like became sort of this
00:16:45
Speaker
medal of of honor that I wore. And i have realized over time that, yeah, that's a great accomplishment, but that I shouldn't, it doesn't diminish the incredible life that my family gave me through skilled trades and skilled labor um for generations.
00:17:04
Speaker
Absolutely. And I had the exact same background. My dad um was an insulator and then later was a shop steward, a facilities department, at actually at a college, but neither one of my parents went to college. In fact, my dad didn't even graduate from high school.
00:17:20
Speaker
um So the idea that i I graduated from college, I was the first one in my extended family to get that degree, um was a huge badge of honor for me. But also my parents, like,
00:17:33
Speaker
they, their generation is the one that was talking badly about people that didn't go to college, but they didn't go to college, right? That we weren't the ones that we were children.
00:17:44
Speaker
So it is kind of crazy. I think Gen X gets a bad rap for it, but we were, it was the boomer generation that, um, that started this precedent, but you know, it's okay. Cause now we're writing the shit and everything's everything's, um, it's, it's going to be better. Um, and it is already getting better.
00:18:02
Speaker
So what is attractive to Gen Z um about coming into built environments into kind of your area of the world? Why are they starting to choose that tool belt, so to speak?
Gen Z's Career Approach and Values
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's um the Gen Z is really socially conscious. um So they like the fact that they are able to make an impact or real impact on the literal world in which they live, right?
00:18:30
Speaker
um They are um pragmatic when it comes to career choices. um There's, I have a liberal arts degree, but they just don't seem to be chasing those as much. They want that, um,
00:18:45
Speaker
you know, to know that they have a career path, a little bit different than um the millennials that like hacked their jobs altogether. They seem to want more stability than like the millennials before them.
00:18:58
Speaker
um And I think that built environment provides that, right? um it It's not going anywhere. We talked about like, there we're always going to need electricians. We're always going to need plumbers.
00:19:08
Speaker
um We're always going to need carpenters. So I think there's part of that as well. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. And you know I know that within your work, you have a ah huge passion for dei and DEI advocacy within construction workforce development.
00:19:26
Speaker
Tell me kind of what sparked that for you um and some of the the projects or or ah programs that you've worked on that you feel most proud of um around DEI and construction. Yeah.
00:19:39
Speaker
Yeah, so just kind of stumbled into the construction industry. um i talked to I went to college. I had it was an advertising major with a minor in sociology, and I ended up getting a job um working for a really large construction management firm in their marketing department.
00:19:54
Speaker
And um through my career, I ended up you know transitioning out of marketing and working on project management for a smaller construction management firm. And we started talking to employers um who were in utility contractors that were trying to diversify their workforce because they realized we have this problem coming.
00:20:13
Speaker
And if we keep trying to recruit the same people, um we're never going to hit our goals. And the more the more women I spoke to, the more minorities I spoke to, I realized like this industry um really provides a pathway to success that no other industry does with a low barrier to entry. Right.
00:20:33
Speaker
You don't need um to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get into this industry. um And as long as you're willing to work hard and, and you know, and learn, um you can own your own business.
00:20:46
Speaker
And, you know, as ah as a single mom, the idea of being able to provide for my family you know, in an industry that there's almost no pay gap, no gender pay gap in the construction industry compared to, i think women make, I think it's like 98 cents to a man's dollar in the construction industry, um which is, know, still doesn't seem 100% fair, but it is compared to other industries, right?
00:21:16
Speaker
So honestly, knowing all that and knowing the amazing opportunities that exist, that's why I'm passionate about like, evangelizing the opportunities of this industry to other folks um that aren't thinking of construction. Because when you think of a construction worker, you're usually not thinking of a woman or you know a person of color. You're thinking of usually middle-aged white man, right? And we still need middle-aged white men in the construction industry, right? And I'm not knocking middle-aged white men at all.
00:21:48
Speaker
What I am saying is that If you think differently about what kind of careers you can have as a person, um then the you know the world's your oyster kind of situation. um without divt And then as an industry, we don't try to embrace.
00:22:07
Speaker
And we say that we'll hire everyone and the industry is available to everyone, but some organizations are better at that than others. um and Construction has some stereotypical stereotyping for a reason when we think of how the industry is.
00:22:26
Speaker
There's usually truth in jest about things. So as if as an industry we continue to try to do better, to reach um populations that we currently aren't really reaching,
00:22:37
Speaker
um Current percentage is about 14% of the industry is women. And that includes office roles, project management roles, everything.
00:22:48
Speaker
Skilled trades is just under 4%. So we have a long way to go um of of really, truly embracing women in the industry. Once we do that, i think if we can figure out how to fill this industry with women, then we will have solved our workforce problems.
00:23:05
Speaker
Because if women want to be here, everyone will want to be here. Yeah. No. Amazing. Amazing. And it's something else we were talking about just before we started was um a webinar series that you are launching with the Kennedy kennedy Kruger Institute this fall.
Webinar Series on Inclusivity for Neurodiversity
00:23:20
Speaker
Can you and tell us a little bit about that and yeah also a little bit about why it's so impactful?
00:23:25
Speaker
Yes. So The Kennedy Krieger, they're here based in Maryland and they are ah preeminent leader on neurodiversity and supporting neurodiverse populations.
00:23:36
Speaker
One in four construction workers self-identifies as neurodiverse. um And when I say neurodiversity, we talk 50% of those folks are folks with ADHD and the remaining are folks with dyslexia and autism.
00:23:50
Speaker
And the industry itself doesn't often think that it's an industry that can support people with a disability because of the physical nature of this work.
00:24:02
Speaker
But when you consider that a neurodiverse population is technically a disabled population, we are kick him butt on, um, including diverse population, uh, disabled populations. And it, and it really makes sense.
00:24:18
Speaker
Um, you know, construction in its nature is a place in which neurodiverse people can thrive. There's deadlines, there's structure plans that need to be followed, but also the yeah the days change every day. You're out, you've kinetically learning, you're out in the field.
00:24:39
Speaker
um You're not sitting behind a desk all day. i mean, it really a place in which neurodiverse populations thrive. um But I still think as an industry that we could do better um when we're supporting those nor those populations. So that's what our um webinar series is going to be with the support of Kenny Krieger. They are the experts on making places, businesses, schools, apprenticeship programs, whatever.
00:25:10
Speaker
um accessible to neurodiverse folks. So we're going to be um using some of their experts and then we're going to be i' highlighting some architects that specialize in creating, designing spaces um to be better.
00:25:26
Speaker
I don't know about you, but an open plan office is very hard for me to work in because I have ADHD. And as much as I love chat with my neighbors um about things, I don't get very much done when I have a lot of distractions.
00:25:42
Speaker
So the idea of of making collaborative spaces, but also private spaces, I'm really excited about this because I don't think it's anything that the industry is really thinking about right now.
00:25:54
Speaker
um In fact, we've had some pushback um from some of our partners. They're like, one in four people, like that seems crazy, but I think there's a lot of, um misnomers of what about what it means to be neurodiverse as well.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, i and I would love if you guys are comfortable, we would love to share that webinar series when it comes out with our audience, because even if you're not in construction or built environments, what you just said smashes stereotypes.
00:26:25
Speaker
it it smashes that people with disabilities can't be a part of construction. and And for a long time, even the federal government had a moratorium on affirmative action for construction contractors because they were worried about not being able to fill critical roles. That was a missed opportunity.
00:26:44
Speaker
yeah um And when you can see, the the other thing that you just said that just really stood out to me, because I also have ADHD, is structure.
00:26:56
Speaker
learning differently, learning with your hands, learning by doing, not learning by sitting in front of a checklist of things that you have to do or a long manual that some PhD wrote that really is just verbose.
00:27:09
Speaker
um It is and entirely different way to learn. And a lot of times at Disability Solutions, we talk about meeting people from a leadership perspective where they are. People do not learn the same way.
00:27:20
Speaker
And this is an excellent example of how people who process differently will thrive in environments where they can be trained differently. Yep. Fantastic. Yeah, we're really excited about it. And um it i do think that this industry is accommodating people in ways they don't realize that they're accommodating.
00:27:42
Speaker
um And so I'm just really excited about helping people like connect the dots and realize, oh, wow, I actually am already doing this work. um How do I put a name to it? how do i make sure that um when I've got you know, Gen Z has just spent, it's probably the most diagnosed generation ever with neurodiversity and has had all kinds of accommodations um when they've been in school and now they're entering the workforce.
00:28:10
Speaker
So how do we make sure that that new employee that has just, you know, spent, you know, the last 12, 16 years in school with a 504 plan feels um feels accommodated and feels supported, mostly supported um at work.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah, man I think it's such a great point. And and we already see that Gen Z is but early graduates are struggling in in the workforce and are having you know a significantly higher and unemployment rate, whether they have a college education or not, then than non-Gen Z
Integrating Gen Z into the Workforce
00:28:47
Speaker
workers. So we've got both an opportunity from roles that we need to fill, but also a workforce that needs to get developed and fully integrated.
00:28:55
Speaker
So i i think it's smart that that you're kind of thinking about, hey, this isn't just good for this person who has a disability. This is filling a workforce need that we are currently on track to not have and not have very soon.
00:29:12
Speaker
um And so I think that's just a fantastic kind of win-win, which is how we like to talk about it. um you know and And I just want to change shift subjects really because as we kind of wrap up.
Impact of Potential Job Corps Closure
00:29:25
Speaker
um you had a really great post on LinkedIn that caught our attention about Job Corps. um And if our listeners don't know, Job Corps...
00:29:37
Speaker
as of right now is set to be closed or the vast majority, about a hundred of the 125 or so job core centers around the country are set to close on June 30th.
00:29:49
Speaker
um Just in the last week, we've had a decision that stays those closures, which means those closure closures will not happen um until the next set of court rulings that you're out of my, i'm out of my element there.
00:30:04
Speaker
yeah, and Job Corps is something that is truly transformational for young people and for our country. And I'm guessing that a lot of our listeners don't even know what Job Corps is and why you're so passionate about it.
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, so... I want to say that I don't have any actual affiliation with Job Corps whatsoever, um but I am, like you said, a passionate um about it.
00:30:31
Speaker
It is a federally funded job training and education program run by the U.S. s Department of Labor. It's for people ages 16 to 24 who meet low income requirements and want to learn a trade.
00:30:42
Speaker
complete their high school education and prepare for a career and it's no cost. um It's a pathway to apprenticeship. There's hands on skilled training, supportive services like housing and meals and transportation support, counseling, career guidance, all kinds of critical wraparound services.
00:31:00
Speaker
And honestly, it's the no cost part. It's free. So it's giving it's for low income kids. um And honestly, the biggest, the hardest part about this closure is the fact that they will be homeless, right? um Thousands of students um like that, homeless.
00:31:19
Speaker
And Job Corps is not without its um problems like any large run organization is. um And what we're hopeful is that with this ruling, it does give Job Corps that time to potentially look at ways that it could be doing things better um without making all of these students homeless, because that is part, like you're saying right now, um I hadn't seen those stats on Gen Z and unemployment, but it will obviously continue to increase when we cut things like Job Corps.
00:31:53
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and that's so critical. and And I'm glad you you brought up the the homelessness because I think I read about 80% of the students in Job Corps right now when the program closes will be um unhoused at this point or at at that point. So that's a critical issue.
00:32:13
Speaker
But there's an there's an That's the critical immediate issue that we don't want to lose sight of. But there's also the and.
Advocacy for Workforce Programs
00:32:20
Speaker
The and is all the things that you've been mentioning throughout this entire interview of critical workforce development that you need in Maryland, that I know that we need in Indiana, that I can't imagine any of the other states have a perfect grasp on.
00:32:34
Speaker
So, you know, kind of... if our If our listeners are also passionate about making sure that young people who need additional opportunities can get to work, can get to apprenticeship programs, is there anything that we can do to advocate? Is there anything that we can do even at at our local level to support um these types of programs, whether it's Job Corps or something else?
00:33:00
Speaker
Yeah, well, first I would just encourage listeners, you know, your electal contact your elected officials. Make sure that they know that you support, especially if you're in, um if you have a Republican elected officials, because they they need to hear um that you support this.
00:33:18
Speaker
um and um And then just get involved. There's organizations in every single state and every single city that do workforce development.
00:33:30
Speaker
There's organizations like in Indiana, there's the Construction Users Roundtable. um Here in Maryland, we have MCCI, but every, um every municipality has a workforce board of some sort that's probably providing some kind of apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship program, get involved, find out what opportunities exist. There's programs like YouthBuild that was also supposed to be closing.
00:33:57
Speaker
um there's There's all kinds of government supported, but also local government supported workforce programs out there that need our help um and that need to make sure that they're not gonna go away because we we need the government to help fund these programs.
00:34:13
Speaker
We are lucky, like I said, in Maryland that we have government support for apprenticeships. Not all state governments have that kind of support. So without the federal government's help, millions of jobs are gonna go unfilled. And it's ah ah huge missed opportunity, not just for the employers, but for the people themselves that really need good paying jobs and construction pays really well.
00:34:38
Speaker
and And those build our communities, right? not just physically build our communities, but put money into our communities, provide or you know contribute to our economies. um Thank you so much. This has been such a fun conversation.
00:34:52
Speaker
so we always end on two questions.
Embracing Diverse Hiring in the Workforce
00:34:55
Speaker
So the first one is if you could tell an employer one thing that would change their mind about um hiring a person with a disability or hiring a person from a diverse background, what would that one thing be?
00:35:09
Speaker
Gosh, just do it. You know, I mean, you, like I said earlier, you don't even realize that you probably are already employed, disableable disabled people.
00:35:21
Speaker
um Some neurodiverse minds are the brightest minds um in this, in industry in the world. um So you're really missing out if you're not making space for those folks in your, in your, in your businesses.
00:35:35
Speaker
And is there one thing that someone did for you that changed your life along your career? Gosh, I think it's the person that just told me to go for my dreams, right? um The day that i um said that I really wanted to do this work for a living before I even realized what I what what i was saying what I wanted to do, and she just said, go for it.
00:35:58
Speaker
Yeah. You know, I just think back to her all the time. And um without her, I'd still be just plugging along at a construction company, you know, making a decent salary, but not really feeling as fulfilled as I do every day, knowing that we're hopefully changing not just the future of the construction industry, but lives of Marylanders and beyond.
00:36:23
Speaker
I don't think that we realize often and enough in our life how impactful those words can be, that that just go for it. um If people want to connect with you, what's the best place to find you?
00:36:35
Speaker
Sure. I'm on LinkedIn all the time. um Jennifer Dewey is up there. um And you can also find me on our website, which is mccei.org. Amazing. Amazing. So again, we want to thank you and MCCEI,
00:36:52
Speaker
um the Maryland Center for Construction, Education and and but Innovation for supporting Changing Minds and Changing Lives podcast. Thank you for the work that you're doing. I think this is such a great conversation.
00:37:02
Speaker
Guys, we'll see you soon. Lots of more, lots more guests coming up. um But this conversation has been a perfect way for me to wrap up my week. So thanks, Jennifer. See you guys.
00:37:13
Speaker
Take care.
00:37:19
Speaker
you