MMPI and Turner Construction have teamed up to create five Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center (Cleveland MMCC) educational programs geared to Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) students and graduates. The five programs include UCIP-ASAP, Career Awareness for Middle Schools, the CMSD High School Internship Program, the CMSD College Scholarship Program, and the CMSD Higher Education Co-op Program.

These programs provide construction-related training and work experience for students ranging from seventh grade through college. These current training programs for CMSD students and graduates were recently presented to the Cuyahoga County Council and the City of Cleveland Employment, Affirmative Action and Training Committee.

• UCIP-ASAP. The Union Construction Industry Partnership (UCIP) – Apprenticeship Skill Achievement Program (ASAP), known as UCIP-ASAP, is a seven-week, 280-hour union-sponsored training program in Union Building and Construction Trades. UCIP-ASAP program graduates are placed into paid, union apprenticeship programs.For the Cleveland MMCC project, Turner Construction is sponsoring five Max Hayes high school graduates in the current UCIP-ASAP class of 20. This investment of $58,000 provides materials and supplies, textbooks, training equipment, a stipend, initiation and application fees, certificates, and a first-year apprenticeship. The Cleveland MMCC UCIP-ASAP students started classroom instruction on July 18 and are scheduled to begin their pre-apprenticeship on the project September 9, working with contractors such as Coleman Spohn, Donley’s, North Coast, Schuff, and Zenith. The UCIP-ASAP apprentices will work on CMMCC in skilled trades, including carpentry, electrical, plumbing, iron work, pipe fitting, sheet metal, and cement masonry.

  The UCIP-ASAP Classroom Elements include Applied Math, Construction Safety (10-hour OSHA training), Blueprint Reading, Journal Maintenance, Construction Terms/Definitions, Trade Orientation, Training Site Visits, Building Trades Hands-on Experiences, Union Membership, CPR, Conflict Resolution, and Physical Conditioning for Trades.

• Career Awareness for Middle Schools Outreach. A joint initiative from Hard Hatted Women, Turner, MMPI, CMSD, and the Construction Employers Association, the Career Awareness for Middle Schools Outreach is geared to informing seventh and eighth grade students about construction careers and encouraging academic paths aligning with construction career opportunities.The in-class presentations are scheduled to begin in September, 2011 and will be conducted by teams of volunteers from the participating agencies in more than 12 potential CMSD schools located through the east side, west side, and southeast side of Cleveland and involving more than 900 students.

  The program will introduce students to how and why projects are built and the different roles and people in the construction industry, including in-class presentations from construction managers, architects, engineers, supply chain, project managers, operating engineers, iron workers, boilermakers, electricians, pipelayers, sheet metal workers, carpenters, floor layers, cement masons, drywall installers, glaziers, insulation workers, painters, plasterers, roofers, and laborers. Following the presentations, students will conduct hands-on, in-class projects, including creating a blueprint and a model Medical Mart facility. The program will also include leave-behind resources for teachers and students.

• CMSD High School Internship Program. During the next three years, up to 25 CMSD high school students will work as paid interns in the Turner Cleveland MMCC field office. The students are selected from the MC2 Stem High School, a year-round work-study program designed with flexible schedules to allow 20 hours of field experience per week.The CMSD high school interns began work in the Turner field office less than a month after the commencement of construction in February, 2011. Five interns have worked as interns in the last seven months, filing reports, creating excel tracking logs, document control, updating the CMMCC SharePoint database and assisting with general administrative duties. The students are Justin Connors, Christopher Hinegardner, Miriam Lowe, Chelsey Offredo, and David Dudra.
• CMSD College Scholarship Program. Turner will select one CMSD graduate attending college in a construction-related curriculum in the spring of 2012 and 2013 to receive a $5,000 scholarship. Currently, all five Turner field office high school interns have come from the MC2 Stem High School, a school in its fourth year of existence with the first senior class set to graduate in the spring of 2012. Turner plans to begin issuing the CMSD College Scholarship in 2012 and 2013 to award interns who have worked on the project.
• CMSD Higher Education Co-op Program. CMSD graduates who have participated in the CMAP program and are pursuing a degree in a construction-related field are eligible for a paid position in the Turner Cleveland MMCC field office through the Higher Education Co-op Program.