A program founded eight years ago to encourage Kenai Peninsula youth into construction trades is facing budget cuts and a “disconnect” between job training and legalized marijuana.
Bob Hammer, President of the Kenai Peninsula Construction Academy, says state funding was reduced by 20% in the last budget cycle. Following those cuts, the statewide program received about $3 million in grants through the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Hammer: “What I heard is we’ll be probably phased out in three to five years.”
Hammer says local legislators support the program and have encouraged the Department of Labor and the program to find ways to keep providing free welding, carpentry, and electricity classes to the community. He and the board of directors are investigating future funding options.
While the program works with the school district, the academy in Kenai is not founded through the school district or college, it is a non-profit which differentiates it from the other five Alaska academies.
He says another hurdle the program is working to overcome is explaining that while recreational marijuana is legal, most workplaces will drug test and not hire users.
Hammer: “I’ve had several of them say, ‘Well, you have to drug test? Why? It’s legal.’ They don’t get the disconnect that you can’t do it on a construction site. Alcohol is legal but you still can’t do it on a construction site.”
Hammer says when the academy began drug testing, class sizes shrank but more students went on to be employed locally.