On Nov. 18, Wesley Holmes journeyed out.
In the construction trades, that’s the term for graduating your apprenticeship program and attaining the journeyman level.
In Holmes’ case, that training position lasted four years, but his career path to joining Western States Carpenters Union Local 206 was a longer and more existential “journey.”
“When I was young, I ended up in the foster system, and my resource parent was a stucco plasterer who showed me a little bit about the trades,” Holmes said. “But I got a late start in my career due to getting into active addiction. My struggle with addiction led me down the path of destruction, which led me to being in and out of jail and prison.”
In 2019, while serving time in the Monroe Correctional Center, Holmes built himself a release plan.
“Getting into the trades was my top priority,” he said.
Holmes applied to the PACT program, Seattle Central College’s Pre-Apprenticeship Construction Training, and for 11 tough but life-changing weeks starting in the fall of 2019, he balanced his full-time, minimum-wage job in SODO with the full-time PACT training in the Central District.
“My first two weeks, I was fighting to stay awake,” Holmes admitted. “But after that I adjusted. I met a lot of good people, and it was fun. The class was awesome. They teach you everything —learning the [construction] skills, but also about nutrition and taking care of your body, the whole nine yards. They also helped me with getting my license, because I had a bunch of tickets at the time. They opened a bunch of doors for me to help me get in where I needed to be, and it really changed my life.”
With a PACT certificate in hand, Holmes immediately applied for Carpenters Union orientation.
And then COVID hit. He ended up having to wait 14 months.
In the meantime, though, he was qualified for a role at Vigor shipyard.
“Jason Hutson [a Project Labor Agreement Specialist] at Sound Transit had helped me get my PACT application in at the last minute, and then he helped me get into the laborers’ union at the shipyard, and that work was considered essential through the pandemic because we were working on Navy ships. I was making $16 or $17 an hour, then $20, then got bumped up to $26 an hour, which was the biggest raise I’d ever had in my life at the time. I was kind of starting to feel like, ‘I’m happy here, I can work six days a week if I want and apply for overtime.’”
But the carpentry field was still his primary interest, based on conversations with mentors he’d made along the way.
“There’s 407 different things carpenters do, from residential buildings to bridges to highways. So I figured there’s more skill, and I was like, ‘You know what? That sounds fun,'” Holmes said.
So when the carpenters union finally called him up with an invitation to orientation, he jumped at the chance. And while his four-year apprenticeship just came to a close, he doesn’t plan to stop learning anytime soon.
“Every job I get on, I’m constantly learning,” he said. “I love to learn, and being in the union, we can sign up for classes on the weekend. A lot of people don’t do that, so I try to go the extra mile.”
Holmes strongly recommends the pre-apprenticeship route as an invaluable leg up for anyone who might be interested in a construction trades career.
“I’m kind of an older apprentice – I got in when I was 34,” he said. “And PACT was lifechanging, because it gives you the skills and the tools and things to look forward to. Sound Transit was a huge sponsor for it, and they were there for my graduation and everything. And now I’m working with Jason to get onto a Sound Transit project as soon as the project I’m currently working on is over.”
For now, Holmes is working on his first major infrastructure project, building two bridges in Kent.
His advice for future apprentices is “just to stick with it. There’s times where it can get hard, a for a lot of people that’s when you’re going through your first winter. But like they teach in PACT, just being prepared, with simple things like extra gloves and layers and dry clothes, makes things go easier for you. If you’re constantly prepared for whatever comes at you, it makes it easier to stick with it.”
By sticking with it himself, Holmes is living a completely different life than just a few years ago.
“I was making 30 cents an hour in prison, then minimum wage when I was attending PACT,” he said. “Now that I’ve graduated my apprenticeship, I’m making $61 an hour, with medical [coverage] and pension. I just closed on my first house. And I’ll always look back to PACT, because they got me prepared.”
Ready to jumpstart your career? Our region needs a diverse, dedicated and skilled workforce to bring Sound Transit’s multibillion-dollar, three-county, 252-mile system expansion to life. Visit our apprenticeships page to learn more.