Grace Keahi was a small-town girl with big dreams. Born and raised on the island of Moloka‘i,
Grace had plans to leave her steady gas station job and the little town where she grew up and enter the military to learn a vocation and gain new experiences.
Instead, opportunity came knocking at her own door in a big way.
Earlier this year, the Moloka‘i native happened to see an ad for an apprenticeship program with the International Union of Elevator Constructors. She applied, took the aptitude test, interviewed on Maui and never looked back. Among the men and women throughout the state who took the aptitude test, Grace had one of the highest scores.
“Dreams do come true,” Keahi says, “if you’re not afraid to leave what’s comfortable and safe and work hard for what you believe in.”
She moved to Oahu to start the program, and with financial support from the federally funded Hawaii Women In Technology Project operated by the Maui Economic Development Board, she found an apartment, car and the initial tools she needed.
Today, Grace is working full-time for Otis, the elevator company, as an apprentice during the day and going to apprenticeship school at night. So far, she has placed in the top tier of three apprenticeship levels. The apprenticeship program runs for four years.
For the first time in the history of the Hawai‘i chapter of the IUEC, women are being recruited to fill top-paying apprenticeship positions in the elevator industry. Grace will likely be close to making a six-figure income once she’s done and represents the new trend of women who are part of a highly-trained and dedicated workforce for the construction industry.
Now, both men and women who want to find out more about the career opportunities available in the construction industry can do so at the upcoming Construction Career Expo, a joint venture between the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Apprentice and Training, and the Apprenticeship and Training Coordinators Association of Hawaii, October 20 at the Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall in Honolulu. “To secure our future, we will need the skills and talents of a new generation of trades workers to fill the jobs created by a stronger economy and those to be vacated by retiring Baby Boomers,” said Nelson B. Befitel, DLIR director.
The Expo will provide detailed information about various construction occupations and will expose potential applicants to promising and lucrative jobs in the construction trades.
Learn about trade entrance standards and job performance requirements, view demonstration and ask questions of trades professionals. In addition, speak with training program providers who may be able to assist eligible individuals prepare to enter the trades. The goal is to create a larger pool of better-informed and better- qualified job seekers for the construction industry.
Expo visitors can speak to construction professionals, including the Elevators Construction Apprenticeship Program in which Keahi is enrolled, and view demonstrations. Attendees will also be able to speak with training program providers, including the Women in Technology program which helped Keahi, about assistance with meeting apprenticeship requirements.
For more info about the Women in Technology Program, go to www.womenintech.com.
