1 min read

Season 5, Episode 192

TradesFutures and ALEX partner for virtual reality experience at TWBN

TradesFutures

 

Guest Name:


Allison Balanc

Guest Website:


TradesFutures 

Guest Social Media:


Facebook

Twitter

Supportive Documents:


twbn ALEX

 

Allison Balanc, Digital and Marketing Strategy Manager for TradesFutures, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the Tradeswomen Build Nations Conference in New Orleans, and a unique virtual reality experience the organization will be offering for free during the gathering.

TradesFutures is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was founded in 2022. The program helps direct underrepresented individuals interested in the trades to Apprenticeship Readiness Programs (ARP) across the country. Balanc explained the way that TradesFutures works with state and local building trades councils to develop and improve the quality of the training in ARPs. Since being founded, the program has improved its participants diversification to about 21 percent female and 27 percent people of color.

As part of their efforts to improve diversity in the trades and grow ARPs, TradesFutures will offer a unique virtual reality experience during NABTU’s Tradeswomen Build Nations. They have partnered with a group called the Alabama Experience (ALEX), a mobile career virtual reality experience. Balanc discussed the 14 trade experiences that will be available inside of the experience. 

The free experience will be available at the Hilton Whale Wall Parking Lot in New Orleans Sept. 26-28 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Balanc said the trailer for the experience will be seen during the banner parade. If anyone is seeking more information about the experience, they can visit TradesFutures' Facebook or X account linked on this page.

Listen to the show above to hear more about the unique experience TradesFutures will be offering at TWBN this weekend.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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