Center offers chance to learn skills, begin new career
Austin Hickman was looking for a new career and found it in the apprenticeship program at the Western Pennsylvania Laborers’ Training Center in Saxonburg, a nonprofit that offers free apprentice training to those looking to learn new skills as a laborer.
“They offer free training, free classes, so you can learn a variety of different skills,” Hickman, a recent graduate, said. “They’ll set you up in a way so you’ll learn certain ones before you go out into the field for the first time.”
“You can learn a variety of different skill sets and assets to construction,” he added.
Founded in 1992, the center is a training school, and its students or apprentices have to be members of a Western Pennsylvania Laborers’ local.
In addition to being a union member, other requirements include passing a drug test, having a high school diploma or GED, and having a valid driver’s license.
“I joined because I was young, working at a machine shop. I was making $12 an hour,” Hickman said. “I was looking for something different. I wanted to move up in my life. I wanted to jump into a career. The opportunity arose where I saw this program, and I took it.
