 Afternoon, I'm thrilled to be here. I feel like this event has been a long time in the making. And I really want to thank the National Skills Coalition. I want to thank New America for taking this conference on and for doing such an amazing job. I think myself and some of the other foundations that we partnered with in this couldn't be more thrilled to see all of the energy in this room and how much excitement there is around apprenticeship. So I, myself, am excited to have the opportunity to moderate this discussion with apprentices. You know, there's a couple of reasons why talking to apprentices really kind of speaks to the mission of Casey and to my heart. You know, first of all, I think that apprenticeship is a strategy that really gets to the heart of what Casey is about. And that's about creating opportunity and brighter futures for all families in America. And I think we're particularly interested and concerned about families, perhaps, by who have not had as much access to opportunity or to really strong jobs in good fields, maybe by virtue of their proximity to jobs, maybe by virtue of the gender of their primary breadwinner or the race or the ethnicity or a variety of other reasons. And so we really see apprenticeship as a way to create pathways that don't necessarily go directly through a four-year institution. You know, the second reason that this panel is really close to my heart is the thing that Mary Alice left off in my bio was my first job in workforce development was managing construction pre-apprenticeship programs in three places, here in the District of Columbia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Camden, New Jersey. And I did that at a time in my life where I was just coming out of law school. I came out of law school and I had both undergraduate and professional school debt that was larger than my rent. My, you know, every month, the ability to pay both rent and student loans was a close call, right? And I was working in this pre-apprenticeship program as I shared with some of these folks earlier and was seeing people come out of a 13-week training program in which they were making more money than I was making and they weren't carrying all of that debt. And it just, you know, had me thinking like, you know, this is a better way. I wish I would have known about this opportunity four years ago because I might have really made a different choice. And so I think being able to see this as a moment where more people could have access to a different choice seems really important. So what I'd like to kind of do is to introduce you to three people who made the choice to engage with apprenticeship and to share with you, have them share with you a little bit about their stories and then have you all engage with them a little bit about what they share. You know, it's my hope that each of these panelists kind of illustrates the changing face of apprenticeship that, and they break down some of those stereotypes and really illustrate some of the data that Mary Alice shared. You know, apprenticeship isn't really just old white guys in construction anymore. It's about such a range of other things. And I think that, you know, the folks on this panel really, you know, kind of share that. You know, Grace is a woman. She's an apprenticing in healthcare. Sylvia also a woman apprenticing in the trades as a plumber and finally Ed, who is apprenticing in the insurance industry, which quite frankly, until I moderated this panel, I didn't even know that that was an option, right? So, you know, with that, I wanna start by asking Grace to, Grace, you completed your apprenticeship in 2015, I believe, is that right? So can you share a little bit with us about your apprenticeship and your experience? Okay, thank you. Being the first to speak is an honor. Especially when you're having lunch. So, I came into America as a political assailee in 2013, February. And I was still pursuing my papers. I had come from a position where I was a news editor with a leading station, a leading television station, and newspaper, newspaper. And then we had chaos and we had an election violence in which 1,500 people were murdered and 40 women and children were sought help in church. Refugee in a church were actually banned to ashes. So as a leading news editor and bureau chief, I was covering this and it went headlines as a news splash. And my president and vice president and some of the political figures were actually charged at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. So I was approached by the International Court Prosecutor possibly to be a witness because of the events I covered. But on my way to meet the prosecutors, being a journalist, I wasn't really gonna be a witness, but they wanted to find out more details about the stories I had covered. And on my way to meet the prosecutors, the agents of the government tried to abduct me and they were surveilling on my phone and my phone was hacked. So I went into witness protection through the committee to protect journalists that came into America. And I really came to pursue my dream to have freedom and to be able to express myself and help my community as a communicator. But in the course of all that, I needed medical help because I was someone who had lived with the HIV virus for 30 years. Now I've lived with it for 33 years. And I got this when I was attacked by thugs when about 18 years of age. And I got a blood transfusion or 11 pounds of blood that wasn't screened. That was about 1985. So that's how I got the virus. So when I came here, I needed medication. I didn't know where to go. I didn't know anybody. But I Googled and found a place called Philadelphia Fight in Philadelphia, which is a primary care organization that's used in prevention, treatment, education and advocacy for people living with HIV and AIDS. And I got so involved in this organization. So through networking, I was able to volunteer as a community advisory board member, as a board of directors member. I kept doing things around and people started thinking I was a member of staff when I was actually just a client. So when the apprenticeship for the district 1199C training and upgrading fund with the help of Susan Thomas and Sherry Feldman and Temple University brought in the apprenticeship program, the staff there identified me as someone who was passionate about the work and passionate about the clients because they wanted someone who could identify with the clients, someone who had gone through the same thing and could have empathy. But that's how I joined the program. Thank you, Grace. And so that was a community. Thank you, Grace. She's pretty amazing. It's true. So it was a community health care worker apprenticeship. Is that right? Yes. And so as a result of that apprenticeship, you are a care concierge now. Is that right? Yes. I started as a community health worker and it was a very rigorous and highly supervised program. We attended classes at Temple University, Temple University Center for Social Policy and Communication Development 1199C, while at the same time we attended the job where we were being trained to be community health workers and shadowing people, the social workers there. So it was a roller coaster job, but the most motivating thing about it, I may confess, was that we were being paid and being trained at the same time. So it really motivated us. Yeah, but the level of training involved in it was really professional. Yes. Could you tell us just a little bit about what does a care concierge do? Okay, as a care concierge, you might think it's a very easy job, but my job is actually to smile every day from nine to five. I wouldn't make it. Yeah, so we deal with clients who are terminally ill. We deal with clients who have HIV and AIDS. A lot of them have HIV-related illnesses, hypertension, high blood pressure, and a lot of other issues, mental health, recovering drug addiction. And when they come in, they have cracked spirits. They get their medication, but they're really not being treated right by the society. They are being discriminated against. Some of them have been ostracized by their families. So when they come in to see their doctors, and like other officers where when you go in, they say, oh, what can I do for you? We greet them like long-lost friends, like family members, because we want them to feel important. We want them to feel, because they've been dehumanized, we want them to feel human again, and we want them to have that experience such that they can have trust in us and be able to adhere to the care. So I'm a greeter basically, but more focused on adherence program where a lot of clients cannot get their medication out. One, some are afraid, they cannot keep their medication at home because their families will throw the medicine in the dustbin, or some may even try to kill them because they're HIV positive. You know the stigma associated with HIV because people believe it's a sexual disease meant for bad people who are not behaving so well in society. So a lot of the clients also have mental health. They can't remember when they're supposed to take their medication. And a number are homeless, or some are homes, but they really can't afford the meals. So every morning with the pharmacists, we give them medication and hot meals to ensure that they come back for health. And the main reason we do this is we want to avoid clients going to the emergency room every day. My job is to help the government not spend a lot of money on healthcare. Because if these clients can talk to us and establish trust with us and tell us what's going on, we can follow their healthcare and they don't have to go to the emergency room every other day. A lot of them also come from low income communities, so we help them with the paperwork. You know how when you go in and you're sick and they give you all these four pages to sign, some just leave. They don't want to stay in. So we help them with the paperwork. Finally, also let my other colleagues talk. We are involved in serious clinical trials. We want to find the cure for HIV. I've been involved in a clinical trial for two years on a medication that was not in the market. So I accompanied the clients to the medical trials at Wista Institute and some go through something called the Pharisees where they remove all the blood from the body, pull out the plasma and then return the blood. And the clients are nervous. So my job is to entertain them, keep them awake until the process is over, until we finally find the cure. I love the job. It's so interesting. Yes. We're very passionate about it. Thank you, Grace. So now I'd like to turn to Sylvia. And I'd like to ask Sylvia just to tell us, you know, how... Well, first of all, I should share with folks that you're a graduate of the Building Pathways pre-apprenticeship program and you're currently an apprentice, right? With Plumbers Local 12 in Boston. Is that... Yes, Sylvia. So tell us a little bit, you know, how did you decide to become a plumber? How did that happen? Okay, well, first, thank you for letting me be here to tell everybody my story. Funny story. I went to college, like you did, and I went to Mass Amarist. And my parents, they're immigrants from the Azores. They came here for a better life so their children could have that college education that they weren't able to have. They worked really hard. So I did everything, you know, traditionally. I got into property management. And one day, you know, after, you know, working my salary paid job, you know, 40 hours, but really 60 to 80, with two cell phones and emails. You know how that goes. I just remember one time being in an empty apartment with a real estate agent that was trying to help her client rent an apartment. And I just leaned over the kitchen counter and I said, oh, I just wanna be a carpenter, you know? And she goes, her eyes opened up and she goes to her Volvo. She says, I'll be right back. She gives me a flyer for building pathways. And she's like, you have to do this. She's like, you know, it's a seven week pre-apprenticeship program to get into the building trades. And she's like, I'm gonna be a painter, you know? So, you know, I had to dust my suit off because I haven't put a suit on in a while, but she told me all about it. And I went into the program and, you know, you tour different unions. You know, you go to the brick layers and this and that. And I'm like, okay, that's cool. I'm gonna be a carpenter though. You know, I was stubborn. And until we went to the plumber's union, of course, big chip on my shoulder at the plumber's union. I'm like, plumbing? Yeah, right, you know, are you kidding me? And that was me in the beginning. And then at the end of the tour, I will never forget that feeling and the cheer I sat in. I was flabbergasted. I had just started, I had so much fun. I learned about all this cool technology that plumbing has to offer. And, you know, I never thought about plumbing when it comes to, you know, solar power and saving energy. There are just so many great options and it was just a really good opportunity. So, instead of just having a career, I'm now protecting the health and safety of the nation. You know, it's now something bigger than myself. You know, in college, I took classes on the labor movement. I'm like, yeah, labor movement. But now I'm an active part. I'm a living, breathing part of the labor movement. And I'm so excited. Thank you. My parents were not very happy when I told them. But they are very, very proud of me right now. And I'm just really excited about the opportunity. Sylvia, tell us a little bit about the life of an apprentice. You know, what is it like on the job? What do you do every day or every week? Well, at my union hall, we used to have night school when I first started. You'd work all day and then go to night classes. And it was kind of tough, you know. In the winter, you're too cold, you're falling asleep. In the summer, you're too high, you fall asleep. How do you learn all day, you know? I'm so grateful they changed it to a day school program. And it's a full week. So, you know, I go to work for six weeks and, you know, I work with the journey people, basically helping them out. And for example, last week I was in school, 40 hours. And I roughed in a bathroom for the first time, you know, a full bathroom and, you know, put the finish on. And we wouldn't have been able to do that with night school. So, you know, my confidence is up with, you know, doing those tasks and, you know, it's really great. And then, yeah, that's about it. Great, thank you. So, tell us just briefly a little bit about what it's like to be a woman in the trades. And is there, you know, how have you experienced that? And what advice would you give to other women? Well, I think attitude is everything. Personality is everything. It's like any other job. You know, I worked in the corporate world. I thought the union was gonna be like, yeah, great. But, you know, it's still working with different personalities. It's the same thing, but being a woman in, you know, a male-dominated field, it is a little different. But you just have to go in there and, you know, think about what you're doing. You're focusing on your career. You know, you have to study and get your license. And that's what's most important. And you might hear things you don't want to hear. Just don't worry about it. Unless it's, you know, if you face that, I would say, you know, definitely you want to acknowledge, you know, any issues, but you have to have thick skin to be in construction. And I'm not saying that's an excuse, you know. I'm just saying there's a balance and just focus on your job. Treat it like you're an athlete or a soldier. You know, just go in there and do your job. Take care of your physical body. You know, it's also mentally challenging. You know, study and focus on your work. And be cool. You know, I don't mean to be cool, but, you know, be cool. You know, because, you know, you just have to be cool. You get my point, right? Yeah, it's great advice for anybody with a difficult colleague, right? Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Ed, I'd like to turn to you now. So folks, Ed is both a student at Harold Washington College and an insurance apprentice at Aon. And, you know, I first heard that and I was like, so what, does that mean you're a college student? You're an apprentice. You know, what does that mean you do all day long? So tell us. Well, I would consider myself an apprentice, but I learned all day long basically. So I attend Harold Washington for 14 hours a week and then I work at Aon for 26 hours a week. So Monday through Wednesday, I'm at Aon for eight hours and then on two hours on Thursday. And then on Thursday, I attend class six hours a week. I mean six hours and then Friday, eight hours. So like I said, I'm just learning all day, every day. And when I go to the job, I'm very new to it. So I treat it like school also. So I'm a professional student, should I say. That's great, that's great. How did you find out about this program? Well, see, I have went to college before as a junior college student and I dropped out because I didn't understand the value education. I wasn't treating doing school right. So I dropped out after one year and I moved back home to live with my mom. And I started working at daddy and job as a security guard at Caterpillar. And that plant was in the process of being moved to Mexico. So I knew I needed a new opportunity and I wanted to go back to school, but I had bills to pay. So I couldn't quite, I didn't have the time for schooling and things like that. But so I had a job search setup for trainee or apprenticeship because I knew without the degree I would have to find a career that would train me. So those are the job search keywords I had set up. So I would get emails every morning. Every morning with a list of jobs, it would be a lot of skilled trades and enterprise, the management, trainee things like that. And then one day I seen Aion, I seen it for an HR apprentice because we have HR technology and insurance apprentice within Aion. So I seen the HR application and so my mom worked for Aion for 10 years. So when I seen the name Aion, it instantly resonated with me. So I scrolled through and I read the job application and like the world just stopped in that instant. It said, we don't want you to have any prior experience. If this is your first corporate role, it may not be for you. We're gonna pay for you to go to school and do those things. And I felt like it was a lot on ticket when I filled out the application. So I just had to do it. Great. So I wanna turn to audience questions but right before we do that, Ed, will you just tell people a little bit about like what do you do as an apprentice at Aion? I think most of us, maybe we buy insurance but we don't know what happens inside an insurance company. So at Aion, I actually work for Aion Benfield which is our reinsurance intermediary like a subgroup of Aion. And reinsurance is actually when insurance companies spread their risk but also purchasing a form of insurance. So after we broke it, we broker the deals as an intermediary. We bring insurance companies together with reinsurance entities. And after we broker the deals between these two, we help them maintain a business relationship and communication and just answer each questions each side may have because our job is to be the expert about both sides, the insurance and the reinsurance. So my daily job is a claims analyst. And so when insurance companies have that big loss that they need to make a claim to their reinsurance, they process it, they send it in to us and we check over everything, you know the things that the reinsurers would need so we can get it to them as fast as possible and the insurance companies can get their payment as fast as possible. So I just keep the lines of communication open and consult both sides. That's so cool. I never even knew that existed until you helped educate me. So thank you. No problem. So I think we have two folks out in the audience with microphones that if folks have questions for the apprentices that they would like to ask, this is your opportunity. If not, I have more questions. Right, so I wanna ask you all a little bit about what you think the future looks like. So I'm just struck by for all three of you the passion that you're bringing to your careers. I mean, you kind of sound like me when I talk about workforce development, right? And I think I'm pretty lucky because I don't know as many people who love what they do, the way that we all love what we do. So that's amazing and I'm wondering, what does that make you feel that is on the horizon for you? Where are you gonna go next? I'll take that. Me, I would definitely like to continue my education through an MBA, a master's in business administration and as far as Aion, I hope to one day be on the management and strategy side to help push Aion forward, but for now I'm just gonna keep working hard and taking every opportunity like this one presented to me. So that's just where I see myself as working hard and pursuing opportunity. That's great, thank you. Sylvie, how about you? I see myself being a foreman in about probably 10 years down the line and definitely I am very passionate about politics and keeping the middle class alive and the labor movement, definitely keeping that alive. So whether it's just kind of working on campaigns for people who will support those issues or just getting super involved in my union, taking up some leadership there somehow. That's great, more civic engagement, we interact more of that in this country. A lot more, thank you. How about you Grace? What's the future holds for you? I wanna look at it at two levels, the personal and the national level. My personal goal would be to combine my communications and journalism, expertise and my community health work experience to strengthen the health sector and I would love to do this by being engaged, being involved probably in developing a greater curricula for the community health work, which is a new apprenticeship program so that it grows so a lot more community health workers can come in. At the national level, you might be wondering why I'm wearing all this heavy stuff. This is my salutatorian crown that I got for the apprenticeship graduation and this is my graduation degree, this is heavy. So as any woman, as any woman coming to an international conference in DC from Philadelphia and you're wondering what to wear, so I got this blue dress and then I got the earrings and then I kept wondering like what am I gonna wear on my neck, is it gonna be an African beads or is it gonna be a gold chain? And guess what I wore? I wore my badges, my heavy salutatorian, but not to brag, but to, emphasize upon all of us and to reflect on the heavy responsibility we have in the future to ensure that the apprenticeship program grows and that we are fully involved in getting all these long-term unemployed people who dropped out of school for some reason or another. Someone had an accident, someone lost their home, someone was not just able to get enough money to go to school or some people were laid off and a lot of people have skills and these skills are transferable. I have communication skills. I don't need to get another degree to smile that people can make them feel at home. So you can, it is a heavy burden upon us to ensure that we aggressively ensure that this apprenticeship program in whatever sector it is grows and becomes a big force in the country so that everybody can achieve the American dream. Thank you. Great, thank you. So with that, I think I'm gonna just leave it there. I think that says just about everything that we're hoping for with apprenticeships. So thank you all for sharing your experiences with us today. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. I'm gonna ask our next panel to go ahead and come up and while they're doing that I think everybody's, if everybody's feeling like I am right now, it's sort of like you almost wanna sort of call it a day. I feel good, I feel hopeful, everything is on track. Maybe we should just all go home now, you know? But no, everything is great and what an incredibly inspirational group of people. Let's just give them one more round of applause. So that was a group of people that really sort of both defies a lot of our stereotypes about who apprenticeship is for and who's benefiting and then also builds our hope about how apprenticeship also sort of builds its own loyalty, right? And people get excited about it and excited about being part of something larger than themselves.