Now that three classes of students with disabilities from various Madison County communities have completed an apprenticeship program, leaders hope to take their model to the national stage.
The program allows high school seniors to attend school in the morning and work part time in the afternoon. The goal is for the students to pick up workplace skills to transition into adulthood and possibly a job after graduation.
“These are people that haven't been included,” said Tony Fuhrmann, director of the Madison County Employment and Training Department, who helped start the program in 2021.
Assistant Director Darlene Ladd puts it another way: “Individuals with disabilities are an overlooked asset to the labor market,” she said.
This program solves two problems, according to all involved. It gives students a chance to enter the workforce while providing employers the opportunity to find extra help when nearly all are short staffed.
“It definitely helps us bridge those employment gaps,” said Payton Drury, human resources director for the City of Collinsville.
Fuhrmann, Ladd and Drury recently presented the apprenticeship program at two national conferences in Las Vegas that focused on human resources and youth workforce development in the past weeks.
Currently, there are four students working for Collinsville, two at Madison County Transit in Edwardsville, one at West Star Aviation in Bethalto, and there could be two or three more in Granite City in the coming semester, Fuhrmann said.
Mackensie Walker works in housekeeping at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville.
“It’ll give me something to do whenever I’m out of high school,” she said. “I’ll have a job here.”
A rocky start
Last year, the program graduated all four students who participated. But even though the program is running smoothly now, it did not from the start, Fuhrmann and Ladd said.
The idea was planted in September 2021 when Madison County Employment and Training and Collinsville school district leaders met to discuss a way to involve the students in the high school’s special education program.
By January 2022, they sorted out details with the U.S. Department of Labor, Illinois’ Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Madison County, Collinsville city and school district.
“Five levels of government and bureaucracy went from idea to implementation in three months,” Fuhrmann said. “It was very fast, but there were growing pains with it being so fast, quite honestly.”
Only one of the first six students graduated from the program. One student, who worked for Collinsville’s Parks and Recreation Department, didn’t want to get dirty.
“What we did not do was we did not match people to the jobs,” Ladd said. “So, we had a recipe for disaster.”
From the school’s perspective, the pandemic also played a key role. The apprenticeship program started the first semester students went back to school full time. Combine that with the new work environment, and it didn’t work out well.
However, it wasn’t all a loss, said Cathy Kulupka, who coordinates the special education program at Collinsville High School.
“Three of those students are currently … employed and attribute their success at work to that program,” Kulupka said.
The struggles with the first round also made it clear where the school, county and employers could make improvements, she said. From there, all the parties met and hashed out the details.
“I think that's why we can talk about replicating it, because those early early failures led to where we are now,” Fuhrmann said.
The second year saw dramatic improvement — as all four students graduated from the program and now hold certificates from the Department of Labor they can take to any potential employer in the country.
Dylan Rack is one of those graduates who decided to stay on part time at the Gateway Convention Center while also starting computer programming classes at Southwestern Illinois College.
Rack said he plans to stay at the convention center for the time being because he likes the work.
“I can see what I’m doing,” he said.
Rack is joined at the convention center daily by two high school seniors, Walker and Joseph Sanchez.
Rack and Sanchez hold the title of event associate. Their main responsibilities include setting up for events.
Both Sanchez and Walker joked they are ready to graduate and be finished with homework.
Kulupka, who has all these students like Sanchez and Walker in her classroom starting as juniors, said it's a struggle to get them out in the community. Now that they are working, she said it’s amazing to see.
“One of the hardest things to teach our students, especially students with disabilities, is how to be part of a community, and this program is getting them into the community,” Kulupka said.
Now that Fuhrmann and others have shared the model with hundreds of others in their field across the country, he said he’s hopeful that other county or city governments can replicate the program.
“Hopefully it will inspire somebody to say, ‘Hey, they did it. Why can't we do it?’” he said.
Cathy Kulupka, coordinator of the program at Collinsville High School; Carolyn Cramer, whose son went through the program; and STLPR reporter Will Bauer join St. Louis on the Air to talk about the apprenticeship program’s success. Listen to the conversation on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast or Stitcher or by clicking the play button below.
