LI program helps minority youths prepare for union apprenticeships
Newsday
Femi Ayodele is on the path to a middle-class life after a string of low-paying jobs because an education program helped him become an apprentice electrician with a union.
Ayodele, 30, from Central Islip, is a graduate of Opportunities Long Island, a free program started by organized labor to prepare young adults from poor communities to compete for the limited number of apprenticeships offered by construction unions each year.
The Hauppauge-based program guarantees its graduates a face-to-face interview for an apprenticeship. Eighty percent of the 30 graduates in the program’s first two years are working as apprentices with 15 union locals on the Island and in New York City.