At the start of the pandemic, shortly after arriving at SDCCE, Lewis, whose responsibilities include oversight of seven career centers that support Workforce and College Transition efforts, as well as San Diego Promise and Gateway to College programs, helped launch an Apprenticeship Readiness Program in March 2020. The program, which focuses on enrollment of underserved populations, including women, formerly incarcerated, veterans, and homeless students, saw its second and third cohort classes come through during the 2020-21 academic year. The 12-week program’s aim is to train students and qualify them for a union apprenticeship in the Building and Trades industry within the San Diego region.
“SDCCE’s Apprenticeship Readiness Program is creating equal access for minority populations and for more women to enter the building and construction trades,” said Chancellor Carlos O. Turner Cortez, Ph.D.
Lewis and her team have been focused on creating key partnerships with workforce leaders, including the San Diego Building & Construction Trades Council and others, like Gafcon, that are longtime members of the District’s Corporate Council, to drive the success of the program and get students placed in apprenticeships.
“It has been a hit,” she said. “In our second cohort, we had 24 students and 23 of them are now in the union or in an apprenticeship with one student making the decision to further their postsecondary education at one of our sister colleges.”
A Pivot Point
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewis and her team, like so many others throughout the District, were challenged to think differently about community partnerships.
“During the pandemic I learned how hard employees will work to support students,” she said. “So many students came to us saying ‘I just need a job to survive,’ so we had to identify and create partnerships outside of our traditional CTE pathways with companies like Amazon, Target, and Macy’s to identify jobs that would allow us to support students immediately.”
For the Apprenticeship Readiness Program, which is typically very hands-on, new processes were put in place to help keep students engaged and motivated in a virtual classroom. Each student received a laptop and hot spot to connect to online classes. Employees and leaders from community partners, including SDG&E, Clark Construction, and Pure Water, participated in virtual discussions, and students were provided Safe Zone Training, macroaggression workshops, and math instruction with a focus on construction math.
“We are constantly changing and evolving so that it works for the students and our community partners,” Lewis said.
Staying Connected
Throughout the pandemic, where in-person events continued to be cancelled, the District created new ways to stay connected to the community.
- SDCCE’s Educational Cultural Center campus, in partnership with the County of San Diego, hosted a COVID-19 testing and vaccination site. The center opened in March provided 500-1,000 vaccinations to community members each day with both appointment and walk-up services available. Students from various nursing programs throughout the District worked at both testing and vaccination centers throughout the county as a way to earn clinical hours while still learning remotely.
- Rather than marching through Hillcrest, the SDCCD community came together to participate in virtual events for San Diego Pride.
- Throughout the SDCCD, community engagement was seen when the colleges hosted a variety of virtual programming, including movie screenings, guest speakers, presentations, and musical performances, to celebrate various cultural awareness months, including Hispanic Heritage in September, Black History in February, Women’s History in March, and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage in May.
- Partnerships with Feeding San Diego and the San Diego Food Bank allowed all of the District’s colleges to continue distributing fresh food and nonperishable items to students and community members in need via drive-thru events throughout the pandemic.