Bricklayers Local 2 Expands Apprenticeships Through BOCES

Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) Local 2 NY-VT is strengthening the skilled masonry workforce across Central New York and parts of Vermont by meeting students where they are: in career and technical education classrooms. On today’s episode of the America’s Work Force Union Podcast, Training Director Daren Gulliver outlines how Local 2’s partnership with New York’s Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) introduces juniors and seniors to hands-on masonry fundamentals, then bridges interested students into summer training and registered apprenticeship programs.

The strategy is straightforward: earlier exposure, real tools in students’ hands, clear career pathways, and union-standard safety, wages and benefits that make the building trades a long-term profession, not a short-term job.

• Bricklayers Local 2 is recruiting earlier: Local 2 lowered its minimum application age to 17 to capture graduates who would otherwise drift into unstable work.
• Bricklayers Local 2 is building trust through hands-on training: a 3- to 5-day in-school masonry workshop and a 2-week summer bridge program that creates continuity from junior year to apprenticeship entry.
• Bricklayers Local 2 is building a scalable model: The long-term goal is to help Career and Technical Education CTE instructors embed masonry hours into curriculum with defined targets and potential credit toward apprenticeship readiness.

Central New York’s workforce challenge is not a mystery to the building trades. Contractors need more skilled hands. Communities need more residents with stable careers with benefits. Students need real options that do not require taking on life-altering debt. And unions, built to protect standards and expand opportunity, are increasingly focused on how to connect young people to a trade before they get lost in the churn of low-wage work?

On America’s Work Force Union Podcast, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) Local 2 NY-VT Training Director Daren Gulliver described a practical answer already taking shape across the Local’s wide jurisdiction, anchored in Syracuse and extending through 26 counties, with reach into Vermont. Local 2 currently counts 717 active members and 983, including retirees, a footprint that reflects both a proud history and a pressing need to keep the craft strong for the next generation.

Gulliver’s approach is not built on slogans. It is built on access, repetition, relationships, and the kind of hands-on introduction that makes a career feel real.

Membership Strength and a Wide Jurisdiction

The Bricklayers Union is one of North America’s storied craft unions, representing masonry and tile craftworkers across the United States and Canada. For Local 2, that legacy is paired with real challenges, including rising demand for workers and an average age of incoming apprentices higher than the union would like.

Gulliver said the Local’s apprenticeship population currently stands at 133 apprentices across the jurisdiction. The training operation is supported by two centers, one in Syracuse and one in Albany, with instruction structured around both classroom-related training and workshop-based skill development.

The training model is designed to be measurable and job-connected. Apprentices are brought in annually for related instruction where instructors can evaluate what apprentices are learning on job sites, identify gaps, and fine-tune technique in a controlled environment. It is a system built to protect standards while helping apprentices become productive craftworkers.

Apprenticeship Programs and Cross-Training for Employability

Local 2 offers multiple pathways into the craft, reflecting the reality that masonry is not a single-lane profession. Gulliver outlined five trade programs available through the training system, including a four-year bricklayer, mason, and plasterer program with 6,700 hours of on-the-job training. Local 2 also operates three-year programs, with pointer, caulker, cleaner and tile setter tracks, each structured around 6,000 hours over a three-year term.

That structure matters because it gives applicants a clear view of expectations and a timeline for advancement. It also supports a workforce strategy that many contractors value: versatility.

Gulliver emphasized that apprentices can only enroll in one apprenticeship program at a time, but cross-training is encouraged after completion. The more skills a member carries, the more employable they are across a contractor base that needs reliable craftworkers who can adapt to varied scopes of work, he said.

Plastering, in particular, was described as a craft that demands precision and commitment. It is physically demanding work that requires coordination and technique, and the training system exists to ensure those skills are adequately developed.

BOCES Partnership Brings Masonry Back Into the Classroom

The centerpiece of Local 2’s new workforce strategy is its partnership with the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, known statewide as BOCES. In practice, BOCES functions as a career and technical education extension of local high schools, offering construction technology and vocational programs that can connect students to sustainable career paths.

Local 2’s role is direct and hands-on. The union goes into CTE classrooms and runs a masonry workshop lasting a few days, depending on the school. Instructors bring tools and equipment and teach fundamentals such as laying brick to the line and basic leveling. The objective is not to overwhelm students. It is to put the trade in their hands.

Gulliver said the initiative began almost five years ago with a pilot program in Syracuse that ran for five days. The results were strong enough that Local 2 expanded the model. Today, the Local has delivered programming across 18 BOCES programs, building relationships with instructors, counselors, and work-based learning coordinators along the way.

That relationship-building is the engine pushing the program. Local 2 returns to schools year after year, often meeting students as juniors and seeing them again as seniors. Over time, familiarity becomes trust, and trust becomes participation.

Safety, Benefits, and Career Messaging That Parents Understand

Recruitment in the building trades does not stop with students. It must also address parents and guardians who may carry outdated assumptions about construction work. Gulliver’s message is framed around career stability and the union advantage: strong wages, healthcare benefits, and a safer work environment supported by union contractor standards.

The union’s pitch is not that the work is easy, but rather that it is worth it, offering a long-term standard of living that can support a family. Just as important, the training itself becomes a form of protection. As apprentices learn the correct methods, safe practices and professional expectations, they reduce risk and raise performance.

Local 2 also adjusted its minimum application age from 18 to 17, a change designed to remove a common barrier. Many students graduate at 17. Without a pathway, they take whatever job is available, then return years later after bouncing from job to job. Local 2 is working to close that gap and bring young workers into a structured career track sooner.

Tracking Results and Building a Bridge Program

Gulliver reported that Local 2 brings in roughly six to 12 first-year apprentices per year across the jurisdiction through the BOCES relationships. While the numbers are modest, the strategy is built for steady compounding growth.

A key addition has been a two-week summer training program designed to bridge juniors into the apprenticeship pathway. Students receive additional training at Local 2’s centers during the summer, then return to school for senior year with a clearer understanding of the trade and a stronger connection to the union. After graduation, the Local is positioned to bring them into the apprenticeship program with fewer delays and less uncertainty.

A Model Other Locals Are Watching

Gulliver said coordinators and directors from other Locals have reached out, asking questions and exploring how to replicate the approach. That matters because workforce shortages are not confined to one region. The need for skilled craftworkers is national, and the most effective solutions tend to be those that can scale without lowering standards.

Looking ahead, Local 2’s long-term objective is to help CTE instructors incorporate masonry more systematically into their curriculum. Gulliver is already working with instructors on target hours and the concept of vocational credit that aligns with apprenticeship readiness. If successful, the model could shift from a visiting workshop to a regular part of how schools prepare students for careers in the building trades.

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