OVABC - Enroll Your Apprentices Today!

Episode Transcript

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Talk for the weather nine first morningweather forecast. Overcast, cool day that
the highest seventy six is isolated.Challenge clouds move out overnight or go down
to sixty four eighty five to hightomorrow with mostly sunny skies. Part May,
cloudy overnight down to sixty six.Sunday or Friday is going to be
a sunny day with a high ofeighty nine seventy two degrees. Right now,
let's hear about traffic conditions. Chuckfrom the uc Gout Traffic Center.

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The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center isopening the most comprehensive blood center in then
as the future cancer is here calledfive one three five eighty five U sec
set southbound seventy five continues to buildthrough Wakland. Had three to four extra
minutes out of Ebondale northbound seventy five, though that's in pretty good shape so
far this morning. No major timedelays into town. Chuck Ingramont fifty five

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ker see the talk station. It'sseven point thirty nine fifty five kerc the
talk station. A very happy Wednesdayto you. Apprenticeship training is what it's
all about. Don't have to goto a four year college and waste your
time taking music appreciation class and abunch of humanities classes that have literally nothing
to do with the degree you're tryingto pursue. What you do want is

(01:12):
an on the job training. Youwant a good salary right up front.
You want a high demand job.You want to be in the trades,
and someone who knows all about that'sgoing to talk about that today. Nick
Smiley from the Associated Builders and Contractors. Welcome, Nick. It is great
to have you on the program today. Good morning, Brian. Thanks for
having me again. Always a pleasureI've been doing. I appreciate it,

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man. And you know, II got a college degree, and I
joke about it now because you know, in hindsight, a political science degree,
I don't know what you do withit. Right. I went to
law school, which is what Iended up doing for a living, and
it was I ended up doing fine, and that was great. But had
I not gone to law school,I have no idea what would know with

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a political science degree. And it'slike so many college degrees, is there
a demand for that particular field thatyou are studying in college and quite often
there isn't. I mean, likean art degree, what do you do
with an art degree if you're notworking for Southby's, where there probably aren't
any jobs available anyway. I mean, you can't parlay that into into a

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salary. You can if you're inthe trades, though, there's still a
huge demand for carpenters, HVAC guys, pipe fitters, sheet metal workers,
roofers and the like. Right,Nick, Absolutely our newest numbers we just
got out from our national office.Three hundred and seventy thousand openings have just
opened up. In the press industry. We've got about thirty seven thousand just

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here in our region. Oh mywork. So the opportunity is there for
sure. Well, and you canearn why you learn, can't you?
You can? And I think that'sthe best thing about it. Our apprenticeship
training. We go through nine differenttrades from roofing, the sheet metal,
pipe fitting, craft labor or likewell you name it. But the thing

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is is that earned while you learn. The way our apprenticeship program is set
up, and so many across thenation are set up, is you're really
out there forty hours a week minimum, right, You're really getting your time
in. You're coming in for yourfive hundred plus classroom hours a year.
So with your hands on learning andyou're in class learning, not to mention

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getting paid the entire time, you'renever behind. You're never behind the eight
ball on debt. Well, andI suppose you're making a lot of connections
along the way too, since youare literally on the job a lot doing
these things. You get your nameout there in the world, and it
increases the likelihood you're going to getwell, maybe another job down the road,
or meet folks in the industry andcontinue your successful career. The other

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thing I want to bring up realquick here because I mentioned this before,
there was a study on artificial intelligenceand the idea that like, if you're
taking getting a psychology degree, ifyou just plug your exam question into chat
GPT, it's virtually impossible for theprofessors to figure out whether you actually did
the work or not. I don'tthink it's possible to cheat when you're working

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in the trades, is it.I mean, you've got to know how
to pull wire, you've got toknow how to sweat pipes, you got
to know how to do roofing work. You can't cheat your way around that,
can you. No? And Iheard your lead in earlier this morning,
and it gave me goosebumps because Ijust thought that is that is so
spot on what you were saying.Because until you can show me the computer
where you can take some studs andsome screws, shove them, you know,

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shove them into the disk drive andit's going to spit out a wall
for you, I'm not sure howyou can prove that you have the skills
that pay the bills to be inthe industry. Right, we do have,
so you do have hand you know, you have your hands on learning,
right, so you have to showthat you can prove that we do
have online tests. There is noway to fake fake that test. It's
not possible. It is a situationwhere trying to use chat GTP would fail

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you. So we do. Wedo take some precautions to that. But
one note that I'm not sure thatyou're aware of is in colleges. Now
they actually you know, the collegeshave a means to fight that, but
they have to pay for that.Oh but the chat GPT itself, you
know, that is free to everybody. So sure is there is some AI

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out there that works backwards on it. But again, like you said before,
you know, are we getting toa point to where our college education
is even further diminished by that.Well, certainly the perception that the degree
has been diminished is out there inthe world, and that perception alone may
cause people some problems. So let'sconsider the trades. Now my understanding,
you use the National Center for ConstructionEducation and Research curriculum with this apprenticeship training.

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What is that? What does thatspecifically require or entail? So the
NCCR curriculum, it's either a twoor four year commitment, depending on which
trade you're you're dealing with there.And the key to that is it's an
industry recognized conditional that's nationally recognized.If a student is here in the Ohio
Valley region and they complete their journeymanand they leave here and they go out

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to California, and someone were toask, hey, you know, what
do you know? Not only arethey a registered journeyman, but then they
have on file on hand a cardthat they can really just produce at will
that shows everything that they've ever learned. Oh wow, So it's not like
you're you're literally carrying around your resumeknowledge in your back pocket. Yeah,
And it's a it's a great program. That that Wendy Harris oversees here at

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our company, And I think themain thing that people need to understand is
we want to offer this this apprenticeshipopportunity as many people as we can.
But the truth is, as itis an ABC apprenticeship program. So our
goal is then if you if you'renot in the industry, we want to
help you get into the industry byyou know, getting your place with one
of our members. Our members typicallypay for your tuition, so it's covered

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again, not behind the eight ballof any debt once your journeyman, once
you get out of school. Soit really is all of our schools that
we participate with through the Tools programuse it. It's it's a game changer
for sure. Well, and you'retalking about employer you, I mean you,
you are connected with the High ValleyConstruction Education founder is connected with employers

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and they get their talent, theyget their employees through you. So that's
one of those connections I was thinkingof. So if you're in this apprenticeship
program, you're going to be introducedto the employers, are going to employers
who are going to want to hireyou. We're going to get your hired
first Oh, that happened to getthat's the goal. That's absolutely the goal,
Brian. Yes, they get youhired first so that our members can

(07:27):
can put you into this apprenticeship program. Oh yeah, members want You know,
there's a term here, and Ithink the last time we spoke about
it, I mentioned it. It'scalled a unicorn right in our industry.
And the unicorn in our industry issomebody with ten to fifteen years experience,
all their own tools. You canput them on a job. They can
work right away, no question toask. Our members want unicorns, So

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the goal is to provide them withthe pony, right yeah, and then
they put them into the apprenticeship programto grow that horn. So that's that's
kind of the analogy that we usebecause realistically everybody can be a unicorn.
They just need somebody in their cornerto support them, hire them, get
them into the right apprenticeship program,and within four years, you know you're
making all your financial dreams come true. Wow. Well, let me give

(08:11):
me an example of a two yearversus a four year which which industry is
a two year apprenticeship program which andwhich is a four just by way of
example, so craft labor would belike a two year apprenticeship program, and
that's going to bring you in oneverything to basically do any laboring job on
a construction site. That's gonna beyour your craft labor position. That's going

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to be a shorter two year tradewhere you'll have four thousand on the job
training hours, and then you'll havea four year program that's going to be
your electrical carpentry, HVAC, plumbing. You know you're gonna you're gonna need
another two years of those programs.That's eight thousand years on the job training
or eight thousand hours on the jobtraining, excusing, and those are earning

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hours, right, You're not justsay you guys, been eight thousand hours
and not earn money. You're earnedwhile you are learning. So that's a
really important component. And then fivehundred and seventy six classroom hours. Is
that the same for both the twoand four year commitments. I believe it's
a bit less for the two yearcommitment, but again that's all kind of
based on whatever the trade is.All right, well tell you what,

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let's paust from them because more informationpoints, because I know some people are
very interested right now. They likewhat they're hearing and they might want to
get in touch with you. Sowe'll bring it back after a quick break.
Here get the details and information onwhere people need to go to get
this into this program and get ajob and earn why you learn seven forty
eight Right now, we'll continue withNick just a moment here. I get
to mention Emory Federal Credit Union greatplace to bank. I've been banking with

(09:41):
Emory for a long long time andfind it so far superior than the big
bank. I do an account atone of the big banks, but you
know you're a number there, andeven if they knew your number, they
wouldn't care. You're not a bigplayer at every Federal Credit Union. Everybody
is important, and you're gonna lovethe benefits of banking with Emory so much
that you're gonna want to refer yourfriends, family, and colleagues to banking

(10:01):
with Emery and to do that.If you do that, you're gonna earn
twenty five bucks, and so willthey. Yep. So if you become
a member of twenty five bucks,you tell people about it, and if
they sign up and become members ofEmory feder Credit Union, you're gonna get
twenty five bucks, and so arethey simply spreading the word about the benefits
of banking with Enery. You getextra cash and help your loved ones unlock
a world of financial opportunities. Tolearn more about this program, the restrictions

(10:26):
that apply, and the benefits ofbanking with Emery, head on over to
the website. It's Emery FCU dotorg. EMORYFCU dot org, NMLS number
four zero one zero eight's seven federallyinsured NCUA Equal Housing Lendor fifty five KRC
Sure my Heart's yacht Rock Radio goescommercial free every weekend. Quick weather here
on a decent data day, maybehave some isolated showers of times high have

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seventy six, down of sixty fourovernight Tomorrow, mostly sunny day with a
high of eighty five, partly cloudyovernight sixty six, and a sunny Friday
with a high of eighty nine seventyone. Right now for traffic from the
UC Health Tramfic Center, the Universityof Cincinnati Cancer Center is opening the most
comprehensive blood center in the nation.The future of cancer is here called five

(11:11):
one three five to eighty five Use ce ce southbound seventy five continues to
run an extra five in and outof Lackland northbound seventy five. That's building
a bit more, Buttermilk towards Kyle'shad three to four extra minutes. There's
an accident on coal rain at HawaiianTerrace. Northbound lane's are blocked. Chuck
Ingram on fifty five KRC the talkstation about krcity talk station, Brian Thomas,

(11:35):
Nick Smiley talking career opportunities, andthese are careers, not jobs,
talking trades here, opportunity to earnwhile you learn with an employer paying the
tuition for the program. We're talkingabout quite often your partners, your employers
that are looking for these unicorns,as you accurately describe them. The tuition
I think is unbelievably manageable. It'sonly twenty two hundred dollars per year per

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student, but employers quite often coverthe charge for that. They do they
do right now, something that cameout of government. Houstage's office has been
here for I believe the past twoor three years. It's something called the
Tech cred Grant. So employers areactually able to get reimbursed for that uition

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after the student has completed a year, so after their first year they get
reimbursement for that up I leave twothousand dollars. So I mean it's a
win win all around for the realcompany for the students. Yeah, it
really is all right, all importantinformation. So you've peaked a lot of
folks curiosity. Maybe somebody's out therehas got a maybe an eighteen year old
who's considering maybe going to college eventhough they're not enthused about it. Where

(12:41):
do they turn to get this informationand to sign up for the apprenticeship training.
So there's two different places they cango. You can go to ovcees
dot org. That's going to takeyou straight to the Ohio Valley Construction Education
Foundation page. All the information youneed is there. You can wait to
reach out the wind Harris directly throughthat web page. You can also jump

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onto the OVABC Tools program sites.And once you jump on the OVABC web
page, you'll go to membership.You'll see the tools program. That's where
all the information is for the programthat I oversee, which helps students graduating
from high school get into the skilledtrades, which if you can give me
two seconds, I just like toplug a couple of accomplishments we had with
tools this year. With the program, we awarded thirty seven scholarships were awarded

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this year to twenty two different schools. We had over forty thousand dollars in
funds awarded and over seventy two jobplacement and co op opportunities created through the
program this year. So when wetalk about really, you know, putting
pen to paper, boots on theground, that's what we're doing here at
ABC. Making sure that any studentthat is looking to graduate wants to get

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in the skilled trades industry. Wewant to help align them with those goals.
And then if for anybody looking tomake a career change, we do
have the opportunity to help them gettrained as well. Yeah, there was
no age cut off for this.There no, there is not, There
is not at all. Well,I'd like to hear that. And you
know, one of the things youpoint out on the OVCF dot org page,

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which might be one of the onesthe websites you refer people to the
idea that the construction workers are rankedis the happiest of all workers because they
get to stand back and say Ibuilt that. I mean, there is
really something to be said about thatthat definitely is. I think having that
pride at the end of the dayto be able to see what you accomplished
was always positive for me as acarpenter of fifteen plus years. Yeah,

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I think I had a couple ofother jobs that I love doing, but
at the end of the day,you know, all your work might have
been on a computer. You mightnot get to actually see the results of
the fruit of your labor. Sodefinitely a rewarding career. I think I
might have mentioned this before to somepeople when they asked that, but your
kids don't like it. After aboutten years, they get sick of hearing
that you built everything that you drivethat so you got to pick and choose

(14:54):
your spots at that point. Butyeah, they kind of get over it
real quick. Yeah, we know, d that's great. Well, you
know what, honestly, at sixteenyears of practicing law, and I wrote
a lot of briefs and motions andI honestly never went back and read any
of them or held them out toanybody and said, look what I wrote.
You know what I mean. MickSmiley Apprenticeship Program, the Tools Program.

(15:18):
Learn more about it. You canget on the fifty five k sea
dot com on my blog page podcastPage's gonna put a link up to the
websites that you mentioned trades or whereit's at. Lots of jobs three hundred
and seventy thousand waiting for you andhit the ground running with a salary.
Arnway you learn. Nick. Alwaysa pleasure, my friend. Keep up
the great work. We'll talk againreal soon, I hope. Thanks Brian

(15:39):
away the pleasure as well. Thanksfor having me. Have a great one
anytime. Brother. Coming up tosome fifty six, we're gonna talk taxes.
Sarah Wolf. She is upset ourtaxes have gone through the rules.
She's in the Hamilton County O High'sHomeowners group you can find them online on
Facebook fighting the outrageous property tax increases. Maybe we'll see what Sarah has to
say about that in any progress.She's making Judge in a putana at eight

(16:00):
thirty up the right back, Ican hear about it. The United States
will not be today a migrants camp. Get the latest at the top of
the hour fifty five krs the talkstation. This report