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WEC offenders learn construction skills through new program
McCOOK, Nebraska -- The building skills he's learning will complement the electrical skills he already possesses.
Another student says he's learning "something productive and positive."
The third student says she's earning college hours, making good use of her time while she learns construction skills and a good work ethic.
Each sees new construction skills as "building blocks" to a better future.
Juan Cardenas, Marlon Rupert and Deanne Ramirez are learning basic construction skills in a "boot camp construction class" offered to offenders at the Nebraska Department of Corrections Work Ethics Camp in McCook.
The three offender/students are earning college credit hours for the new eight-week construction class taught at the Mid-Plains Community College Area's Center for Applied Science and Technology -- CAST -- facility in McCook.
Lena Koebel, area accounts manager with Mid-Plains' Center for Enterprise on the McCook Community College campus, said the class is funded with a "syNErgy Project" grant through Nebraska Workforce and the Nebraska Department of Labor. The goal of the syNErgy Project is to place skilled workers in unsubsidized employment in the renewable energy and energy efficiency fields by preserving and creating new jobs in building, power generation, transportation, agriculture and waste management markets.
The grant ends in December, but Koebel hopes that the class can be offered beyond that deadline. "Hopefully this is not a one-time class," she said. "The challenge will be to find funding for it beyond the grant."
Gregg Cudzilo, construction teacher at Mid-Plains' North Platte campus, teaches offenders basic construction tool usage, basic math and safety skills. Koebel said graduates will have learned practical framing skills useful on any construction site. The grant pays for the tools that the students use during class; they are the students' to take with them when they're done with the class, Koebel said.
The students are using Cudzilo's designs to build two gable-roofed garden sheds that will be available for sale when they're completed.
Deanne Ramirez said she's learning skills that she can use when she leaves the work camp. Cardenas said he's gaining knowledge of framing that will help him as an electrician. Rupert is proud of the construction skills that are replacing the bad habits that got him into trouble and into the work camp. "I'm learning something productive -- and positive -- rather than what I was doing before," Rupert said.
Both Cardenas and Rupert want to continue their construction education in Cudzilo's classes on the North Platte campus.