By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

As state labor and workforce development officials see it, Alaska is at a crossroads of vital need and compelling opportunity for people skilled in the construction trades, to fill existing vacant jobs, and hundreds more anticipated with a natural gas pipeline.

To that end, Fred Esposito, director of the Alaska Vocational Technical Center at Seward, has spent months spearheading the effort that resulted in a plan to offer more state residents training for jobs that will help Alaska's economic growth.

Now, armed with the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act Training Strategic Plan, Esposito and others in the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development are out to spread the word about training programs to meet the demand for welders, heavy equipment operators, electricians and other jobs.

AGIA requires the labor department to develop a program that will provide job training for Alaskans in gas pipeline project management, construction, operations, maintenance and other gas pipeline-related positions.

The immediate need is for replacement crafts workers to fill jobs being vacated as craftsmen retire.

State officials say major employment for the duration of gas line construction will be in administration, office and field engineering, environmental and safety jobs.

Most jobs in the crafts, logistics, operations, camps and catering, however, will come only when the road and bridge stage of development begins.

With a timeline for the natural gas pipeline as yet uncertain, the more immediate focus is meeting current needs for skilled workers in the state economy, Esposito said.

“We are not meeting the current need, so how could we possibly meet the need for the gas line?” he said. “So the AGIA strategy is to ramp up the existing training strategy to meet current needs, and there is demand now for all of the construction trades.”

As Esposito sees it, the state has not done a good job in funding the training programs, or in letting young people know what opportunities there are in the construction trades. The answer: more state funding for vocational education, and more outreach to potential students.

From 1992 to 2005, there were periods of budget decline or stagnation for the school, he said. “We had a lot of years when it was a struggle to even keep the school going.”

Even now, the facilities are substandard and improvements are needed, including some complete facility replacement, Esposito said.

“We are going to build a new culinary arts facility next year,” he said. “We need to replace the heavy equipment and diesel technology shop. We are going to ask the governor and the Legislature for approval. It will allow us to grow the program, expand opportunities for more students to get the training and set the school up to continue to provide the training.”

According to the draft AGIA training strategic planning document published earlier this year, the need for significant investment by the state in training is a given. They also agreed that training for the gas line should emphasize long-term careers as well as short-term jobs.

AVTEC, with some 40 faculty and 50 support staff, has a current budget of about $10 million annually. Facilities, in addition to classroom instruction areas, include residential living with 158 beds for single students and 18 apartments for families, plus on-campus childcare.

The state is also working in partnership with King Salmon, Dillingham, Bethel, St. Mary's, Galena, Fort Yukon and Sitka to develop regional training hubs, through school districts or branch campuses of the University of Alaska or other agencies and organizations.

“All of them are in different stages of development, but regardless of where they are, we are working with them, using distance delivery technology to bring more programs out to rural Alaska, and partner with them to find out what the local needs are,” Esposito said.

On the bright side, the average age of AVTEC students is now 26 years old, 10 years younger than when Esposito came to AVTEC 11 years ago.

“We've created more awareness and interest by young people by letting them know there is opportunity here,” he said. “The next two enrollments in welding are both full and there are 40 people on the waiting list.”

Classes are also filled for diesel/heavy equipment technology, and industrial electricity, he said.

“The kinds of occupations we are training people for, there is a demand now,” Esposito said. “There will be a peak demand during any gas line construction, but there will also be greater demand after the gas line is done. Many of the skills we are teaching are transferable from one industry to the next. There will continue to be legacy jobs developed as a result of the gas line, and they are high-wage industries.”

AVTEC training runs the gamut, from professional cooking and baking at the Alaska Culinary Academy to applied technologies, including industrial electricity and structural welding.

The complete course list, plus details on admissions, training dates and costs, are at www.avtec.alaska.edu.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com">margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.