Construction

For Laquresha Prince, that means “much more opportunity than I would have had before. I’m grateful for that, because now I can have a career that puts me in a good position, and not only me, but my kids as well.”

Prince, mother to twin sons, was part of the Jaguars Group 4 class that graduated in Jacksonville in early November 2022.

For Marina Westcott, one of Prince’s fellow classmates, earning a Construction Ready education and the eight credentials that go with it is the gateway to “a career path, so I won’t have to work so many jobs.” Westcott has worked at a recycling company, at a Waffle House, and as an Uber driver, sometimes all in the same day.

Westcott and Prince, along with another female classmate, Courtney Davis, found encouragement in one another as they worked through the challenging 20-day curriculum.

Davis recalls feeling discouraged in the early days, but “as I got to know my classmates and these beautiful young ladies, they helped push me through,” she says.

Prince also found motivation by keeping the big picture in mind. As she recalls, “There were times where it was just like, I don’t want to get up, I don’t want to go to class, but just knowing what you are going to get out of it made it easier to actually show up and go through with the program.”

Training – and ultimately working – in a male-dominated industry can be intimidating, but by they time they graduated, it was clear this trio of women had earned their male counterparts’ respect. Many of the men in the class said as much in their graduation remarks.

“We were like a bunch of brothers and sisters,” says Westcott, whose job placement was with HB Next, a provider of training, safety and environmental compliance solutions. Like all graduates, she finished the training not only with basic construction skills, but as a better-prepared professional in general.

“This whole program gave us the tools that we needed,” Westcott says. “Even things we didn’t even know that we didn’t know – resumes and interviewing … we needed all that.”

Partnerships make successful training environments such as this possible. In Jacksonville, the National Football League’s Jaguars provided initial funding and brought the program to the city in early 2022, creating a win-win situation for both jobseekers and industry. With regard to the latter, Construction Ready provided a new labor source not only for area contractors, but for the Jaguars themselves, who are building a state-of-the-art training and operations facility, the Miller Electric Center, adjacent to their home field, TIAA Bank Stadium. And the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) provided scholarships that enabled these three women to go through the program.

Now Westcott can set new goals, one of which is helping her father.

“I just really want to be able to hand him a $50,000 check and say, ‘Please retire.’ That’s my main goal. I want him to retire, and I want him to be happy and proud of me and all the rest of his kids.”

Davis and Prince have their own goals as well. Prince nicely sums up her post-graduation circumstances with a construction analogy. Asked what she wants to do next, she says, “To be bigger and better – to reach for the stars. Or should I say, reach for the scaffold?”

Haskell, an architecture, engineering, construction and consulting firm headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, was seeking to fill positions at the Miller Electric Center job site, where the Jacksonville Jaguars’ training and administrative complex is slated for a summer 2023 opening.

Mosley, the company’s Senior Manager for Field Personnel, says “Jabril really stood out” as he looked through a set of resumes in preparation for a Construction Ready hiring fair in the fall of 2022.

As Mosley recalls, “Our training director had looked at Jabril, too, and he cut to the chase and said, ‘I want to know who you picked; here’s my picks.’ And his first pick was Jabril as well. So we could see there was potential, the two of us seeing something in someone who was willing to learn.”

The interest, it turned out, ran both ways. In fact, before Jabril even set foot in the Construction Ready classroom, he had an eye toward a career at Haskell.

“Going into the program I saw that Haskell was one of the sponsors, and in my mind I was already thinking I would like to work for them,” Jabril says. “I always said I wanted to be in design and building construction, and Construction Ready put me on that path toward getting there. Without Construction Ready I wouldn’t have been able to connect with Haskell the way I wanted to.”

When Jabril showed up at the hiring fair, he confirmed Mosley’s initial impressions.

“Again, he stood out above the rest,” Mosley says. “He had this interest in design, so you could tell he had a little bit of creativity to him and a willingness to learn, not just wanting a job. He spoke well, asked the right questions. We continued the conversation probably 30 or 45 minutes, just because it was so nice to meet someone that has potential.”

Jabril landed the job, and while he came into it with no construction experience, he had already shown he was eager to learn throughout his time in the Construction Ready pre-apprenticeship program.

“I hadn’t been in school in a while, so I liked that I was learning again, especially something that I had a lot of interest in already,” he says. “And there were Lunch and Learns where you hear from different companies. I liked seeing the different ins and outs of what those companies do.”

Each day on the job site has been a process of continuing education for Jabril. Clearly a thoughtful young man, he came up with an insightful analogy to describe his work.

“Starting off they had me doing just basic things,” Jabril says, “but I like to think that what I’m doing kind of coincides with my own education. Like when I was laying foundations [for the Jaguar facilities], I was also laying a foundation for my career. When I’m setting forms, I’m forming myself, too – I’m learning different things every day.”

Assistant Superintendent Alfredo de la Cruz, Jabril’s direct supervisor, echoes Mosley’s comments about Jabril’s potential.

“He’s been doing really good,” de la Cruz says. “I like his attitude. I see Jabril years from now in a different position. He’s willing to learn, he’s always there to help, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.”

Jabril’s story is a great example of how Construction Ready’s pre-apprenticeship program can jumpstart a career in a hurry. In his case, a college football career at Florida Atlantic University had not worked out. The Jacksonville native was back in his hometown working in security when he began researching construction careers.

“I found a few different programs and apprenticeships, then I came across Construction Ready,” he remembers. “It was the quickest one – it said you could get hired for a construction job in like 30 days. So I applied and I got a call from someone who said there would be a class coming up in October.”

The training – actually it’s 20 days – provides instruction in basic construction skills, up to eight industry-recognized credentials, and those all-important connections to real employers who are hiring for real jobs. The best matches come when graduates are willing to keep learning, and employers – such as Haskell – are willing to help them do so.

“This company identifies people who have potential, and they will help develop that,” Mosley confirms. “We want to show them that this is a career. I believe Jabril is definitely taking the steps to continue, so we want to advance his education, get him experience on the job sites, and give him a little bit more [responsibility]. So far it’s been working great.”

A bonus for Jabril is that his first on-the-job experience was helping build a facility for the Jaguars, his lifelong favorite team.

“I mean, grew up in a teal-colored room,” he says, referring to the Jaguars’ distinct primary color. “Just being out here is cool to me, because knowing I’m helping build their practice facility, that sticks with me.”

So far it’s working out just as he envisioned: “It was cool that I had [working for Haskell] in mind, and now I’m here.”