Brock is in his first year as an Operating Engineer Apprentice. After graduating with a four-year degree, he couldn’t work in his field of study. “I bounced around from one dead end job to another,” he says.
In the beginning of 2020, Brock learned about a program called Building Strong Communities, an apprenticeship readiness program sponsored by the union construction industry, the Metropolitan Council, the McKnight Foundation, the City of Minneapolis, MN DOLI, Construction Careers Foundation, MN DOT, Sherman & Associates and North Hennepin Community College, which gave him the opportunity to study the different building and construction trades. Brock quickly decided that the Operating Engineers training program offered him great options and applied to be a registered apprentice. “I want to learn how to operate all the machinery, that way I can be a universal talent to contractors.”
While in high school, Brock felt that college was the only way to go after graduation. “I wish I had learned about construction careers before I went to college. I’m being paid more than I have in any other job, and I have a career. I used to search for jobs, now jobs are searching for me.”