Baltimore County and Harford County technical high school students aren’t intimidated by construction sites, large tools and hefty materials. They don’t flinch at loud banging or drilling. They wear plastic protective eyewear and industrial work uniforms that other high schoolers might scoff at.

Aiden Sullivan, a 17-year-old Harford Technical High School junior, set his sights on a career in carpentry in the sixth grade. He built his first table with his grandfather’s help and played a part in the construction of a home for Habitat for Humanity.

It’s students like Aiden that Maryland wants to attract to the trades through apprenticeship programs starting at the high school level, joining a push across the U.S.

For the first time in its history, DeWalt, a Towson-based tool brand under the Stanley Black & Decker company, hosted 150 students who are in a Career and Technical Education program as part of National Apprenticeship Week late last month. The company is in the midst of an electrification revolution with new battery-operated, cordless and ergonomic tools and is banking on these innovations to attract a younger generation of trades workers.

Educational support from the state

For some Harford Tech and Eastern Technical High School students, technical training and apprenticeship programs provide a different, and sometimes faster, path to in-demand, good-paying jobs with career longevity.

Most students choose to attend two-year or four-year colleges, said Daniel Murphy, career and technical education department chair at Eastern Technical High School. But he is focused on helping find careers for those who don’t.

“One of the things that I’m focusing on is different pathways. College isn’t for everybody,” he said.

The Maryland State Department of Education highlights the pursuit of trades in its Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.

The goal is for more than 45% of graduating students to complete high school with a certification or credential for a technical skill by the end of the decade. The Apprenticeship Maryland Program, a CTE program implemented in partnership with the Maryland Department of Labor, is pushing this forward.

It’s a two- to four-year commitment for high school students, who must complete at least one year of classroom-based instruction and a minimum of 450 hours of mentored, on-the-job work experience with minimum wage pay.

The number of students participating in the program has increased by more than 1,700% since 2017, from 27 students in the 2017-2018 school year to more than 500 in the 2022-2023 school year.

Maryland’s target is to have about 26,000 high school graduates completing an apprenticeship or industry credential by the 2030-2031 school year.

Murphy said that many students at Eastern Tech are already graduating with an industry credential. “All of our magnet programs have industry credentials associated with them, and we’re trying to continue to expand on apprenticeships.”

Baltimore County Public Schools’ Career and Technical Education programs offer 14 “career clusters,” including construction and development; consumer services, hospitality and tourism; health and biosciences; and manufacturing engineering and technology. Events like National Apprenticeship Week take students out of the classroom to get a taste of the real world.

Creating a worker pipeline

DeWalt estimates that more than 500,000 trade jobs are vacant across the nation and that around 15 million new trade jobs will be created in the next decade.

Education is a first step, but the Maryland State Department of Education relies on a symbiotic relationship between the students’ need for hands-on work experience to complete the required credentials and businesses’ desire for young workers to fill jobs.

More than 280 businesses in Maryland participated in the last school year, according to the department’s road map. Even more youth apprenticeships are available through local government efforts in Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Howard County and Baltimore County. However, the demand for youth apprenticeships is on track to be higher than the supply.

DeWalt isn’t working directly with the state or Baltimore County to provide youth apprenticeship programs, but the company committed in 2021 to investing $30 million over five years to the Grow the Trades grant program by awarding grants to organizations that focus on training, reskilling and upskilling tradespeople. In 2023, DeWalt awarded more than $3 million in grants and donated $7.4 million, according to its impact report.

Maria Ford, president of commercial and industrial sales and marketing at Stanley Black & Decker, knows the benefit of getting students into businesses early. Ford started at the company in 1998 as an intern and made her way up to leadership. She said she wants students to see a career path and to destigmatize trade work.

“You’re not going to be on a jobsite for the rest of your life. That’s far from the truth,” Ford said. “There are so many things that I think, unfortunately, people don’t realize or recognize about the industry.”

Students like Elijah Underwood, a 16-year-old junior from Harford Tech, already understand this.

“I’ll probably do the trades for a little bit,” he said, “and then, once I have enough money to pay for it, I’ll go to college.”

Aiden plans to do the same, but he’s interested in construction management programs. He said wants a career that’s hands-on and pays well.

“Later down the road, I want to have my own business,” Aiden said. “I like making furniture right now, but I think it’d be cool to make houses and have my own house-building business.”

Challenges of perception

The future of apprenticeships won’t stop at construction jobs. Maryland needs worker training and apprenticeships to support other industries such as cybersecurity, biotechnology and biomanufacturing.

“Not to say that the skill trades aren’t important. They’re a huge part of it, absolutely, but there are also a lot of other fields in which apprenticeships are being used,” said Maryland Department of Labor Secretary Portia Wu.

Wu said over 80% of apprenticeships in Maryland are for skilled trades but state leaders plan to support apprenticeships around information technology, health care, education, biotechnology and hospitality.

During National Apprenticeship Week, Gov. Wes Moore announced the Governor’s Apprenticeship Pledge, a commitment from industry leaders in the state to create and expand apprenticeship programs. Its goal is to add 500 new employers and 5,000 new apprentices, with at least five public agencies also registering apprenticeships by National Apprenticeship Week next year. Moore also announced a $1.8 million investment in Maryland community colleges to support a cybersecurity talent pipeline.

Expanding apprenticeships across sectors is one hurdle. Diversifying the workforce is another.

The trades have long been viewed as a boys’ club, said Heidi Pratt, director of learning and development at DeWalt. She believes it doesn’t have to stay that way.

“I was the first-ever female trainer with the company, the first to manage the team, and the first to hire females,” Pratt said. “So, I am on a mission to get, especially, young women in the trades. It could be anything commercial, anything industrial, anything tool-related.”

A new federal investment could kick-start a change in Maryland. Moore also announced last month $24 million over six years through the state’s Roads to Careers grant program for transportation and construction sector pre-apprentice and apprenticeship programs for women and diverse job seekers.

Maryland is taking the “learn and earn” approach, as Moore and Wu like to call it.

The job market is changing with the implementation of automation and artificial intelligence, yet Aiden and Elijah believe the trades are the best path forward.

“At the end of the day,” Aiden said, “you still need someone to operate and build things.”

This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Aiden Sullivan's first name.