New nonprofit trade school in Calumet Park gives students a pipeline to lucrative careers
A new trade school in Calumet Park, which is a non-profit school with scholarship programs, is offering a new segment of students a pipeline to lucrative careers.
Nineteen-year-old James Shavers is one of the pre-apprentices at Prosperity Building Futures Trades & Entrepreneurship Training Center. A high school graduate who lives in Matteson, Shaves said he spent a year and two months trying to get into trade schools for construction, carpentry, plumbing and to become an electrician.
"I been applying to them multiple times, never got called back. Waitlisted and as soon as I reached out to this program, I got in, in less than a week," he said.
The nonprofit center is funded through state grants. Qualifying students, like Shaver, can have their courses full paid for through scholarships.
Inside, the students don't just learn a trade; they're given a pathway to stability and purpose.
"Right here I'm learning a career and I'm learning a job. This is something that everyone does not know how to do. This is something that will always be needed," Shaver said.
Students are taught by licensed union instructors like Rashan Walker, who works for a state contractor building bridges and also as a college instructor.
"I can share what I've learned with some of these kids. I can teach them the path which is something that I lacked when I was coming up as a youngster in the South Side," he said.
The visionaries behind the program are husband and wife Stephanie and Michael Benison. They said it's the first Black-owned pre-apprenticeship trades training center in the south suburbs.
"It just opens up the possibility for kids on this side of the Chicagoland area," Michael said.
"Once they learn the basic trades of electrical, HVAC, carpentry, they can go online, right now, you can see maintenance technicians making $30 an hour," said Stephanie.
The center provides nationally accredited training and connections to major unions, creating a direct pipeline into high-paying careers.
"We want to focus on giving you short term certifications that can lead to lucrative sustaining family wages," said COO Inesha Kelly.
And the goal of giving these young people a new measure of success.
