This year we honored WRTP / BIGSTEP. The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership provides successful pre-employment training for job seekers to qualify for family sustaining industrial jobs. They joined the Building Industry Group Skilled Trade Employment Program which offers individualized tutoring in academic skills for apprenticeship exams. The results have been remarkable with many minorities and women placed in family supporting jobs. WRTP / BIGSTEP has leadership and financial support from both unions and management. As President Lindsey Blumer told us both sides are committed to creating career opportunities for those who might otherwise be left out — “on this issue unions and management don’t sit on different sides of the table.”
Watch Lindsey’s acceptance speech: