Appropriates funds to increase the number of public high schools participating in the Construction Academy training program, which allows high school students to take classes in various construction trades and earn credit towards an associate degree at an affiliated community college.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the State of Hawaii is currently experiencing an estimated $10 billion boom in new construction that has created a critical shortage of qualified workers in the trades. Over the next several years, projections indicate that Hawaii will need between 10,000 and 26,000 more construction workers to meet industry demand. Moreover, some believe the labor shortage will only become more severe nationwide as the need for skilled workers increases on the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast and in regions with housing booms. Officials at organizations representing the construction trades note that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the industry will need to add 100,000 jobs each year through 2012, while also filling additional 90,000 openings vacated largely by retiring baby boomers.

To meet the State's critical labor shortfall, one strategy of some trade organizations has been to plant seeds early in the minds of young people who may be interested in working in the trades as adults. One way to do this is through the development of pre-apprenticeship programs designed to spark trade interest and appreciation at the high school level.

A highly attractive feature of a pre-apprenticeship program is two-fold: it provides high school students a head start on two-year post-secondary degrees, while at the same time allowing students to enter a post-secondary apprenticeship program at a higher, more qualified skill level. Entering an apprenticeship at a higher skill level could potentially mean an acceleration of the typical three- to five-year apprenticeship program, the individual's licensing period, and the entrance into the work force. Such training programs provide enormous benefit to the state by generating awareness among students who may not even have known such career options existed. These trade organizations hope to bolster the notion that becoming a plumber, carpenter, or an electrician can provide a successful, satisfying, and lucrative career.

The Construction Academy was created with just these goals in mind. The Department of Education launched the Construction Academy in the fall of 2005 in partnership with eight Hawaii public high schools: Kailua, Radford, Waipahu, Mililani, Kahuku, Pearl City, Waialua, and Hawaii Academy of Arts and Sciences on the Big Island. The program allows high school students to take classes in various construction trades at their respective high schools and, at the same time, earn credit towards an associate degree at an affiliated community college. At this time, a single community college, Honolulu Community College, is affiliated with the Construction Academy program, the State's primary training facility for the building trades. The 2005 Construction Academy class is comprised of 232 high school students, eighteen teachers, and two traveling instructors. This first class has generated such excitement and promise on the high school campuses that Construction Academy organizers hope to expand their program to include other public high schools and community colleges, particularly on the outer islands.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to expand the existing Construction Academy program to all public high schools.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $          , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007 to expand the existing Construction Academy program to all public high schools, and to train high school instructors to develop and teach a specific building and construction curriculum in conjunction with affiliated community college teachers.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2006.