CHILOQUIN — Nineteen students with the Klamath Tribes are learning construction skills in partnership with Klamath Community College as they acquire essential skills before joining the KCC registered apprenticeship program. Last week, the group rebuilt park benches and picnic tables outside the Tribal Administration offices in Chiloquin. They also plan to build a small storage shed for one of the victims of the recent Wright Spring Fire to allow them to store items as they rebuild. The training includes classroom time, taught by KCC apprenticeship instructors. The monthly workshops fall under a partial federally funded grant program called TERO or Tribal Employment Rights Office. TERO collects compliance fees on projects within the tribal jurisdiction as well for its funding. “What we do is provide federally recognized tribal members, regardless of tribal affiliation, as long as they're a member of a federally recognized tribe, with job readiness training and job retention training,” TERO Director Joshua Delorme said. “So, we do a lot of skills development. We host monthly training specifically geared towards the trades and trade industries. It really helps foster community support and fill some of the employee gaps,” Delorme said. The training courses cover a wide swath of skills. “We've had three-day administrative support services training to give people technical skills for entering into the workforce. We host flagger trainings, First Aid trainings. We just did a four-day equipment operator training where individuals were being certified in forklift operation, as well as aerial lifts,” said Inez Heglund, TERO compliance officer for the Klamath Tribes. One focus of the program is to connect with KCC to access apprenticeship opportunities. KCC Apprenticeship Director Mark Griffith and Delorme have been in discussions for about a year developing a game plan toward making apprenticeships more accessible to tribal members. “We’re working toward a memorandum of understanding with the college to continue the partnership,” Delorme said. “Continued collaboration and partnership between KCC apprenticeship and TERO will also create opportunities to strengthen engagement with employer partners who are closely connected to this community,” Griffith said. “Expanding these relationships will help create clearer pathways from training into registered apprenticeship, providing students in this community with increased access to meaningful employment, continued skill development and long-term career opportunities.” This fall, the Klamath Tribe will place 12 TERO participants in the KCC Commercial Driver’s License training program. And the Tribes hope to reach an agreement to work on projects outside its jurisdiction with the Oregon Department of Transportation. “Any of the federal highway work that's taking place within a 65-mile radius will allow us to place our TERO participants on those projects, as well,” Delorme said. “The coursework they are learning is about half of the requirements they need to join the KCC apprenticeship program,” Heglund said. “We want to work with KCC to offer the second half and by next year get a group of students into the apprenticeship program.” Heglund noted that for every five people retiring from the trades, only two new people are coming in. “So, it is a huge opportunity for us,” she said. Sasha Woods, a tribal member participating in the workshops, attended KCC, obtaining her forklift and boom lift certifications. But her heart lies in the semiconductor industry and hopes to become an industrial electrician working for a large corporation. “I haven't taken the career placement test yet, but that's the reason why I'm taking these TERO classes; to figure out what I want to do in the trades and get myself familiar with what kind of background I need to have to apply.” “I want to be a woman in the trades, especially a minority woman so I can encourage other woman to look it as a career,” she said. For more information about KCC and its programs, visit www.klamathcc.edu.
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_Submitted by Gerry O'Brien, Klamath Community College (OBrien@klamathcc.edu)._
