MARYSVILLE—Washington State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti and former State Representative, now Outreach and Community Engagement Director for the Treasurer’s Office, Jesse Johnson, visited Marysville Pilchuck High School’s Regional Apprenticeship Pathways (RAP) program Friday, October 23, to see how Snohomish County’s only state-recognized construction career and technical education course for high school students provides free hands-on trades training, dual college credits, and preferred direct entry into union apprenticeship programs after graduation.
Starting in the 2019-2020 school year, the RAP Program is available to students in the Arlington, Darrington, Everett, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Lakewood, Marysville, Stanwood-Camano, and Sultan school districts.
Since the program’s inception, the state legislature has funded the program with one-time funding in each biennium ($1.5 million per biennium).
The program was the brainchild of Snohomish County Councilman Nate Nehring who, back in 2018, led a series of discussions with local employers, educators, and labor leaders on how to address the lack of workforce in the building and construction trades.
The product of these discussions was an effort to increase the pipeline of potential workers in the trades, now called the Regional Apprenticeship Pathways (RAP) Program.
What began as a 25-student apprentice class with no official shop space has now grown to train 103 students a year with real-life trade skills. In the last six years the program has grown tremendously from strengthening its safety protocols and fine-tuning its curriculum with the support of its various trade partners, to expanding career path offerings through various grants and broadening partnerships between school districts and industry.
Students in the RAP program gain hands-on, technical, experience in multiple trades including plumbing, sheet metal work, welding, cement masonry, carpentry, electrician, and more.
Students enrolled in the RAP program not only gain both high school and college credits but land a guaranteed interview with an esteemed labor union rep at the end of the course, with many of these interviews resulting in apprenticeship programs right out of high school.
During Friday’s visit, Treasurer Pellicciotti and Johnson toured the facility, accompanied by Dr. Anne Carnell, Director of the program, and RAP students Tyson Williams, Paul Newman, and Olliver Sechiessl, who walked the pair through the program’s hands-on curriculum, showcasing some of the projects they’ve achieved this semester which include sheds, tiny homes (which will be donated to the homeless), furniture, and even award-winning results from competing in the SkillsUSA National Championships.
Johnson and Pellicciotti both served together Representing Washington’s 30th Legislative District (which encompasses parts of South King County and North Pierce County, including the cities of Federal Way, Auburn, Des Moines, Algona, Pacific, and Milton). It was during this time when their attention was brought to Federal Way High School’s Pre-Apprenticeship Program (PAP), which, like many similar programs statewide, used Marysville Pilchuck’s RAP program as a metric.
After the tour Treasurer Pellicciotti addressed the class to speak on what they’ve learned, what drew them to the trades in the first place, and most importantly: financial responsibility.
“I’m so excited to visit great programs like this because I see things going so well, and connecting people with opportunities,” said Pelllicciotti. “But the importance of making sure once you get that first paycheck you understand how to manage it. When you start saving money and start investing it can do amazing things for your life.”
Pellicciotti stressed that it’s important for young people to learn how to save, and grow, their wealth even after securing a job in the trades following school.
“If you start saving now, at a young age, it’s almost guarantee you’ll be a millionaire,” said Pellicciotti. “A lot of people start saving later in life and they run out of time. But if you start saving now it grows faster and faster.”
Johnson added that there is really no end to possibilities with the trades, especially with the rise in A.I. influencing the tech industry. He shared with the class that he learned, in a recent trip to the United Kingdom, that there is even an initiative to bring American tradesmen overseas to help refurbish old castles.
Headed into the upcoming legislative session Pellicciotti plans to recommend a bill to the legislature that would make financial education instruction a graduation requirement. A similar bill, Senate Bill 5080, was introduced to the Senate last session but didn’t make it passed a public hearing in the Senate Committee on Early Learning and K-12 Education.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
