Skills for Tomorrow High School: The Minnesota Teamsters Service Bureau

Story and photos provided by and with the permission of the Association of Joint Labor/Management Educational Programs. Previously published in The Newsletter, a regular publication of the Association of Joint Labor/Management Educational Programs.

The Minnesota Teamsters Service Bureau (MTSB) is a multi-faceted human service program serving Teamsters and other workers throughout the state. The service bureau provides re-employment and training services for all qualified workers, both union and non-union. In addition, their workforce transitions program facilitates a joint process among management, workers, and union representatives to identify and address training and/or workplace change issues. A Family Services Program offers counseling and other assistance to workers and their families.

The most recent triumph of the Minnesota Teamsters Service Bureau is Victor Pollard, an 18-year-old graduate of the Skills for Tomorrow High School, a unique charter school, of which MTSB is a sponsor. He was taped to speak at a conference on innovative educational strategies.

Victor's story is inspiring. Son of a single mother, he was in foster care and had been labeled a Special Needs student. He was labeled that because he cut class and cut up, not because he couldn't cut it academically.

When teacher Allison Rubin and her husband took him into their home, things began to change. Victor enrolled in the Skills for Tomorrow program. It offered an applied curriculum that prepared graduates for jobs in the community.

For once, Victor made the grade, and the rest of the story is worthy of prime time.

Finishing four years of school in two, he graduated at the top of his class. An internship at a funeral home helped him discover his calling in life, and hard work and commitment paid off at graduation. Victor Pollard was granted a full financial aid package that would send him on to college and professional training in the funeral business.

In August, when MTSB was invited to participate in the 25^th annual Teamsters National Black Caucus, executive director Jean Dunn submitted Victor's name as a speaker to that esteemed group. "I didn't know exactly what to expect," she recalls, but she did her part by introducing him to the audience of 800.

"He got applause from the introduction," Jean recalls. "But then he stammered and faltered as he began to read his speech."

Just when Jean was going to intervene and rescue the flustered young man, he put his notes aside. He confessed his nervousness, and then spoke from his heart.

She was not the only one inspired by the young man's words. At the end, the crowd rose to their feet. On the spot, the leadership of the caucus granted Victor Pollard a $10,000 scholarship to continue his studies.

The real story of MTSB does not stop with the high school program. "MTSB is responsive to the needs of workers," she stresses. "Our new programs come from the rank and file, and new needs are emerging all the time from dislocated and incumbent workers."

Call MTSB for more information at: 612-676-3700

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Skills for Tomorrow High School Receives University Transportation Center Award

Profile of Skills for Tomorrow High School, awarded as an effective school-to-work model in our first round of awards.

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