The Trenton Times Editorial Board published the following article on October 31, 2013. To read the full editorial, click here.

Editorial: Trenton ‘pre-apprentice’ program is pathway to career development

By Times of Trenton Editorial Board 
on October 31, 2013 at 6:20 AM, updated October 31, 2013 at 6:24 AM

In a story last week about a new job-training opportunity in Trenton, Times staffer Nicole Mulvaney nicely summed up the way the promise of the program is entwined, quite literally, with the city’s future.

The apartments and townhouses rising on the site of the former Miller Homes have brought hope of a better home for many city residents, she wrote. The project is also offering offer a pathway to careers for laborers who have wished for steady work in the trades — but lacked the necessary skills — through a “pre-apprentice” program.

City Councilwoman Marge Caldwell Wilson calls it a way “of connecting the dots” of a labor force without the requisite construction skills, union locals willing to give those workers a chance and city development.

Herbert Brown, the head of the Trenton Housing Authority, calls it an opportunity for a sustaining livelihood, “a way to learn a trade and enjoy a solid, good-paying career.”
Some, prosaically, may call it teaching a man to fish.

Trenton resident Malachi Smith, who is learning to be a plumber, calls it “a new lease on life.”

With the skills he learns on the Rush Crossing development, Smith may qualify for a four-year apprenticeship. During that time, he’d attend classes and complete field training to become a journeyman on his way to a career in the trade.

That distinct possibility has been wrought by an array of agencies all working to bring out the best in the city by helping residents to reach their potential.

It fulfills the often prescribed bromide to “work hard and you will succeed” with a clearly calibrated route to success.

The success of the workers goes hand in hand with successful completion of this multilayered project that will eventually offer more than 200 homes with about a third reserved for public housing.