MONTANA - Montana has approximately 2,150 apprentices in the state right now, according to Program Manager for the Registered Apprenticeship Program in Montana Mark Lillrose. One of those apprentices is Sarah Douglas, the first waste water apprentice in Montana.
Douglas said she used to be a vet assistant. Now, she's doing things like replacing water main valves and checking chlorine levels in town wells.
"I'm learning new things every day, or almost every day," she said. "I'm not a sit-behind-the-desk type person. I like being active. I like working with my hands and building things, fixing things. Driving backhoes is pretty fun. Learning to drive the heavy machinery has been kind of fun. I think the most challenging is yet to come. I think this apprenticeship program is going to help me through that. My challenges are book work and math. And that's coming up because I know to get this certification, there's a lot of stuff I'm going to have to learn that's not in my strong suit."
"It was never really a field I even considered," she added. "I don't have any background experience working for a town or a public works department at all."
Lillrose said the apprenticeship program is growing. He said there were about 1200 apprentices seven years ago.
"You'd be surprised how many individuals with not only bachelor's degrees, but masters degrees, that we've put into apprenticeship programs," he said.
Lillrose said most apprenticeship programs require the individual to have a high school diploma.
"We're having employers report to us that there's a lot more diversity in applicants," he said. "Women and minorities are applying for these jobs. Because Sarah, like she said, didn't drive a backhoe as a veterinary assistant. How would you ever get that experience? What the apprenticeship program does is it allowed the City of Bridger to cast a different net. They looked at soft skills. They loved what Sarah had on paper. And then, they said, 'Hey, we're going to train her.'"
More information is available here.
