Winner of 2022 STOP Award for Permissionless Education
About
Offering high school credit in an innovative apprenticeship program, unCommon Construction (uCC) students earn hourly pay and school credit for completing a construction project. Apprentices learn career awareness by being exposed to industry partners, develop professional skills through an “uncommon” work-based learning experience in a real-world classroom. They are awarded an equity scholarship paid for by the revenue from each project. Co-founder Aaron Frumin dropped out of college in 2005, to respond to Hurricane Katrina and eventually was led to think critically about what young people need to thrive immediately following high school, whether their path takes them through college or directly into a fulfilling and sustaining professional life. His journey from Red Cross volunteer, to day laborer led him to discover that the construction site was its own type of classroom in which many of the subjects taught within the walls of a high school including math, social studies, science and visual arts were needed to realize projects. The result of these and subsequent experiences was his founding of uCC in 2015.
Their Story
Louisiana has the highest rate of unemployed, out-of- school young adults in the nation. UnCommon Construction aims to transform how they learn and work.
Aaron Frumin
Executive Director
If we want to prepare kids for the real world, we need to give them an education that actually happens in it.
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Why they stand out
New Orleans is known as the Big Easy, but folks at the Louisiana-based unCommon Construction prefer to do what’s hard. While other workforce development programs for youth focus largely on credentials, uCC acknowledges that both educators and employers need youth to have strengths such as time management, professionalism, problem solving, motivation, honesty, and resilience. Research conducted by MHA Labs has identified core skill competencies that young professionals need in order to make significant positive contributions to an organization’s culture and impact. These skills are ingrained in uCC’s program. While an apprentice is participating in their program, staff members track and monitor skills growth through the use of MHA Labs’ Hireability Scorecards. uCC’s impact is measured by demonstrable growth in technical and soft skills, and postsecondary outcomes for graduates of the apprenticeship program.
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How they STOP for education
uCC uses an earned revenue model that meets 65-75% of expenses, providing services at no cost to youth, schools, or families. Following the completion of every project, the resulting house is sold. A percentage of the proceeds is used to match the earnings of each apprentice by 50% in the form of a scholarship at the end of the semester. Other proceeds are reinvested in the program and the next project to fund operations, materials, and additional labor.
This transformational program allows high school students to earn-and-learn on the job, also receiving scholarships for certifications funded by revenue from selling the houses students build.
uCC is working to support and expand to systems that provide for greater choice and flexibility in educating students.
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Winning their award
Funding from the STOP Award will help unCommon expand to mid-size cities where conditions in the education system, shortages in the workforce pipeline and opportunities in the housing market converge which will draw revenue and ability to sustain its programs, starting with new sites in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Kentucky.
