Community Conscious: Waterloo’s Second Chance for Hawks and Homes 

The WE Build Waterloo program, a building trades quality pre-apprenticeship program at Hawkeye Community College, is giving individuals in Waterloo, Iowa, a chance at a career — while utilizing their talents to rehab homes in the community.  

Valerie Peterson is the Workforce Development Coordinator at Hawkeye Community College and in her current role, she is focused on the WE Build Waterloo program. At the college she has developed a reputation for training individuals that are ready to enter the workforce pipeline, while gaining employer involvement and support. Peterson has held the position almost five years and has been with the school for nine. 

“WE Build Waterloo is geared toward non-traditional students or students that want to explore construction as a new career field before making a big change,” she said. 

“They might have been unsuccessful elsewhere, or have various obstacles in their life, whether that be a criminal background, single parent, low income, lack of transportation or those types of things, etc.”  

The program gives people who are looking for a job a second chance at a career. 

 

A Natural Fit 

The community-based program began in June 2020 and uses the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) curriculum. The program provides individuals with craft training for construction skills, resume assistance, career counseling, interview prep, team building and the necessary skills development for those who might have employment barriers.  

“It was a natural fit for the WE Build Waterloo program to utilize the NCCER curriculum when it was instituted in 2020,” Peterson said. 

Hawkeye used NCCER curriculum because it aligned well with what they were doing to help students get out into the field quickly. Core: Introduction to Basic Construction Skills, Heavy Equipment Operations and Fundamentals of Crew Leadership courses were just a few of the classes offered. 

One student started the program in the spring of 2023 and finished the course in September of that year. He started a full-time position a week after finishing, working with a local residential carpentry company.  

“When we had our graduation ceremony, he was so happy he cried,” said Peterson of the student. 

“We asked him, ‘What’s going on?’ and he said, ‘Well, I never finished anything. This is the first time in my life I have finished anything.’” 

Students who enroll in WE Build Waterloo will spend 14 weeks in a 300-hour pre-apprenticeship program. Sixty-to-seventy hours are spent in the classroom and the rest with Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity, the local Waterloo Habitat chapter, where volunteers and construction contractors work on refurbishing homes. The experience helps students explore a variety of career paths within the construction industry. The first property renovation, completed in 2021, was a vacant three-bedroom, two-bath home in Waterloo originally built in 1896.  

During the pre-apprenticeship, students gain valuable construction experience with the opportunity to develop contacts within the local industry. By the end of the program, some of the students have employment lined up for them with jobs that offer a competitive wage and benefits. 

In June of 2024, Hawkeye Community College was awarded a $1.5 million Department of Labor YouthBuild grant that allowed Hawkeye to expand the WE Build Waterloo program to serve more students and to include high school completion courses for those that qualify.  

 

Hawkeye Apprenticeship Programs 

The college also offers four-level apprenticeship programs for plumbing, HVACR, carpentry and electrical, all utilizing the respective NCCER curriculum. The apprenticeship programs combine on-the-job work experience and classroom instruction that prepare students with the necessary skills for their chosen trade.  

The plumbing and HVACR programs run for roughly three months and focus on passing the journey-level assessment for licensure as well as getting the students prepared for the exam. The carpentry and electrical courses run for about five months. Heavy equipment classes are offered in all seasons except winter, due to challenges with machinery and weather conditions.  

The school also offers a program for English language learner (ELL) students. ELL students can work on their English skills while learning appropriate terms and language for the construction industry.  

 

Iowa Department of Education’s Role 

Paula Nissen works for the Iowa Department of Education (DOE). She has been with the department for 25 years, working in data analysis for the community college and post-secondary readiness area of the Iowa DOE.  

Nissen said she hopes to use data to get “more into the weeds” of the NCCER program and evaluate its effectiveness. 

“We want to see the students who take NCCER training and how they do comparatively to the rest of the students,” she said.  

Nissen noted it’s her department’s intention to follow the students after completion of the training to see how their careers progress. They will track the students for up to five years after they’ve completed the training. 

“We see a lot of students who were working in retail or working in food service, now taking training classes to be a welder, electrician or heavy equipment operator,” she said. “Once they complete those programs, they then become employed in construction or manufacturing, and that pays a whole lot more money than what they were making in retail.” 

Nissen pointed out that jobs in the construction industry are in high demand right now. 

“They’re always going to be because there’s always going to be things that need to be built, things that need to be put together, dug up.” 

“Those jobs are sustainable for a family’s future. Those jobs provide well-paying, wide variety opportunities for students,” Nissen said. 

 

Making a Difference and Changing Lives 

Since that first WE Build Waterloo home renovation in 2021, several other homes have been refurbished by students with the help of local construction companies and volunteers. When completed, the homes are sold to people involved in the program or to someone who couldn’t qualify for a conventional mortgage but are trying to make a change in their lives.  

WE Build Waterloo earned national recognition in 2023 when it received the National Council for Workforce Education’s Exemplary Program Award. The award was presented to Peterson, along with others from Hawkeye Community College, by Nissen in Baltimore, Maryland, during the National Council for Workforce Education Conference.   

Nissen shared her thoughts about the award, “That’s a national award! That’s worth bragging about. There’s a lot of colleges applying, and they are reviewed by the committee. So that was pretty impressive!” 

Peterson reflected on the validation the award gives to the program. 

“It’s great to be a part of a program that’s winning awards. I think it gives us a greater sense of pride for what we do as well.”