Colleagues,
We are excited to share this exciting news from our colleagues at Madison Park. A new Pre-Apprenticeship program for Madison Park students.
Paul Neal, Head of School at Madison stated “We are very pleased that each year 50 of our students graduating from one of our construction trade programs will be eligible to enter a pre-Apprenticeship program.
This is just another of the new initiatives that we are implementing at Madison Park.”
In addition, Mr. Neil provided us with a link to a video of the entire program announcing their Pre-Apprenticeship Pathway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN_ZmA8MS2I
An incredible opportunity for the students at Madison Park!!
David
Boston strikes deal opening union job opportunities for Madison Park grads
(Left) Chaton Greene, a 2005 Madison Park graduate and general agent with the Greater Boston Building Trades Council; and Rahem Shepard, president of the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, witness Boston Mayor Michelle Wu sign a landmark agreement to establish an expanded direct pathway for Madison Park Technical Vocational High School graduates into stable, good-paying union jobs in the construction trades. (Libby O’Neill/Boston Herald)
By gzokovitch
UPDATED: May 13, 2025 at 8:20 PM EDT
Boston signed a deal with the local unions tied to BPS construction projects creating direct pathways to job opportunities for Madison Park Vocational High graduates, city officials announced Tuesday.
“Madison Park, just like BPS, has had to do more with less for far too long – students, parents, educators and community members have been left wondering, ‘Why can’t we have all the benefits and opportunities that students at vocational schools in the suburbs have?’” Mayor Michelle Wu said Tuesday morning. “That is about to change with this agreement. Madison Park will have something better than any other vocational school in the state, because this agreement provides for apprenticeship opportunities at a scale that no one else has.”
At Madison Park High School, the mayor signed the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with the Greater Boston Building Trades Unions and the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, “ensuring a consistent supply of skilled, union labor for major BPS capital projects.”
Under the provisions of the PLA, up to 50 Madison Park graduates will be guaranteed spots in the Building Pathways pre-apprenticeship program for trades union.
The Building Pathways program will guarantee will have guaranteed admission to the top-performing half of each Madison Park graduating class in carpentry; electricity; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); metal fabrication; plumbing; and building and property maintenance. The pre-apprenticeship will then be followed by admission to a registered apprenticeship program.
Chaton Green, a business agent with the Greater Boston Building Trades Unions and Madison Park graduate, said this PLA will empower students to “not have to wait 10 years to find access to great careers” like he did.
“When you give a young person the tools to earn a living, to stand tall with pride in their work and to build something that lasts, that doesn’t just change a project, it changes a life,” said Green. “The ripple effects of this PLA will be felt for decades, creating stable pathways to home ownership, to save for the future, and building stronger, safer communities. This is how we fight inequality, not with words, but with work, with opportunity, with good union jobs.”
The PLA will also keep BPS’s Long-Term Facilities Plan moving forward by supplying consistent labor, Wu said, and aligns with Boston’s “equitable procurement and supplier diversity standards to expand opportunities to women- and minority-owned businesses.”
The agreement also includes provisions committing to exploring a trust fund subsidizing childcare for union workers, which Wu called a “personal issue of mine” Tuesday.
“But we’re not waiting for that renovation to be done,” said Wu. “We’re not waiting even for the MSBA application or other parts of it to be completed before we get to work at Madison. We are doing this because our students deserve every improvement, every opportunity, every expansion of resources now.”
Chapter 74 Vocational Technical & Agricultural Education
LEARNING THAT WORKS FOR MASSACHUSETTS
David J. Ferreira
MAVA Communications Coordinator
DavidFerreira