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Indiana Gov. Mike Braun was in Warsaw Wednesday for the groundbreaking for the Central Midwest Carpenter Council Training Center.
This new training center will be at 2300 Hidden Lake Road, Warsaw. The construction will be done with Fetters Construction Inc. as the signatory contractor. The training center has been in development for more than seven years.
Braun said about this project and skilled trades, “… Standard degrees are important, but … these kinds of jobs, that you’ve been promoting and training for, pay more than almost 80% of your typical degrees, and you don’t have to move out of state to find a job. It is how we keep our state vital and our communities vital … In making sure that where we educate our kids they’re starting to hear about these opportunities in middle school, and especially in high school, and that the whole education system is dovetailing into where the best paying jobs are … We are talking about apprenticeships and training that we are finally realizing will differentiate our state from the others.”
Jason Clark, political director of Central Midwest Carpenters, said, “We are very proud of what we are building out here. This $15 million investment is, I believe, a reflection of the support that we give, the economic development come to Indiana. In less than one year we now have partnerships with high school programs, with the honors plus seals high school rollout that Governor Braun, when elected, rolled out. We have now received our statewide articulation agreement, working with Dr. Katie Jenner, the secretary of education for the state of Indiana.”
There are over 38,000 members of the Central Midwest Council of Carpenters.
Matt McGriff, executive secretary treasurer for Central Midwest Carpenters and chairman of the Training Fund, said “In the past three years, we’ve grown over 5,000 members in the Central Midwest Council and we are going to keep growing because of the amount of work that we have here in the state of Indiana. One way to keep growing in our organization is building new training centers. We are always going to invest into training, into membership and into our contractors because we want to provide the best qualified, skilled tradesperson out there today. That’s always one of our goals, and that’s why we have 13 state-of-the-art training centers across our council and we are excited for this brand new one.”
In addition to the governor, members of Warsaw Common Council, FCI Construction, representatives from Central Midwest Carpenters and high school carpentry students from Warsaw, Churubusco, Columbia City and other local schools were in attendance.
Clark also spoke about their future plans and said, “With the governor’s support, we are now working towards a stackable education with Ivy Tech and Purdue University. It’s still in the process, but we are looking forward to it.”
