A longstanding partnership between Pueblo Community College (PCC) and EVRAZ Rocky Mountain Steel continues to churn out dozens of skilled tradespeople each year, helping the “Steel City” power one of its largest employers as it prepares to ramp up production.
The PCC and EVRAZ apprenticeship program teaches employees millwright, electrical systems, and other high-tech trades that keep the steel facilities humming. After four years of classroom instruction and on-the-job training, apprentices qualify for advanced roles and see a 32% increase in their hourly wages.
“We’re really focused on upskilling and continuing that lifelong learning for individuals who are already in industry and helping them move up in their career,” said Amanda Corum, executive director of PCC’s Pueblo Corporate College. “We want to keep that talent local.”
Apprenticeships aren’t new to EVRAZ, which ran an in-house program in the 1970s that eventually lapsed. As more employees neared retirement, the mill approached PCC to help them retool its program for the 21st century, Corum said.
“They came to us with a really good map of competencies and skills, and we were able to then use that information and have additional conversations and interviews with EVRAZ staff to determine what the related training instruction should be,” she said. “Our instructors all come from industry, so they have real world experience. We really leaned heavily on their expertise in those conversations.”
For someone like John Camper, the program was too good to pass up. The former ranch hand intended to go to college but struggled to balance school and jobs as a young man.
“It was very hard to work and go to college at the same time,” said Camper, who participated in the mill’s first apprentice cohort. “Coming to work at the steel mill and being afforded the opportunity to be paid while you’re learning fell in line with exactly where I was in my life.”
