Alexis Tirado worked in other professions before joining the Apprenticeship last fall. She previously worked for American Airlines, and tried her hand at welding before she joined Local 541. She’s now working on her first union job at the Knight Cancer Research Building project in Eugene, Oregon.
Now that she’s a Union Carpenter, she says that she’s the most financially stable that she’s ever been. The amount of skills she’s learned in the past six months has been impressive. She admits she could barely hold a hammer correctly six months ago, and now she is working for Whitaker Ellis helping with the concrete formwork on the prominent data research center at University of Oregon—not bad for a first union job. An Apprenticeship is designed to help people make career changes without drastic financial consequences. Additionally, it provides a good income and lots of opportunities to learn valuable and transferable skills.