‘It’s Time To Be an Adult’

With his high school graduation rapidly approaching in the spring of 2024, Tim Rogers Jr. knew he needed to figure out his next step. Thanks to Construction Ready and Perry Career Academy, he found a golden opportunity – four weeks of training at no cost to him, and a full-time career with PASCO, a provider of automatic sprinklers and fire protection systems.

Construction Ready’s partnership with PCA gives recent graduates of Clayton County high schools access to the same Pre-Apprenticeship curriculum that has sent hundreds of Atlanta-area men and women into full-time skilled-labor careers since 2014.

Tim’s initial introduction to the possibility of a construction-oriented career came when students at Morrow High and several other Clayton schools were invited to a “See It To Be It” tour of Construction Ready’s CareerEXPO at the Georgia World Congress Center in February 2024.

“When I first heard about [the tour], I was just thinking, ‘I get to get out of school,’” Tim remembers. “I thought it was going to be boring. But when I went up there and saw all different kinds of [career opportunities], I was like, ‘Dang, this is what they really do.’ It was a cool event.”

Still, Tim acknowledges that construction “wasn’t my first option.” He was leaning toward an automotive career, but with graduation drawing closer, “I had to hurry up and find something,” he says. “And then I saw a flyer for the Construction Ready program, so I signed up.

“In the back of my head, I just had something click,” Tim continues. “It was like, ‘It’s time to focus. You’re about to leave high school. You’re about to be an adult. It’s time to do things on your own.’”

Tim credits Construction Ready Pre-Apprenticeship Instructor Daniel Jean-Baptiste for preparing him and his classmates for their industry careers: “He made it interesting. Every day he came in with good energy. He wanted everybody to have a higher standard.”

Tim finished the program in June 2024 and was hired immediately for a laborer position with PASCO. He serves as a helper to one of the company’s pipefitters; the pair work as a team, with Tim cutting pipe and handing it over his co-worker for placement, while keeping the work area safe. He says the OSHA 10 credential he earned at PCA has helped him in that regard. There’s been plenty of on-the-job learning as well.

“It’s fast paced,” he says. “You think, ‘It’s just fire sprinklers,’ but there’s way more to it. In the field, you have to focus. If you don’t know, ask about it.”

Tim says his first year out of high school has been a time of significant personal growth. Working for PASCO has helped him pay off his car, and the responsibility has made him a role model for his younger brother and others around him.

“I want to be that person that he can look up to,” Tim says. “And not just my little brother, but people in general that I know – I want them to look up to me and be like, ‘Yeah, he’s a mentor.’”

Tim stays in contact with his Perry Career Academy classmates, who find support from each other through a group chat. “We still check on each other and ask questions,” he says. “It’s not like we just all went to school and then went separate ways.”

Construction Ready Pre-Apprenticeship training is offered every summer at PCA. Tim encourages Clayton County high school graduates to consider it as a viable career option – one that’s loaded with potential.

“I would tell them to do it, because the sky’s the limit,” he says. “If that’s what they want to do, then by all means, do it. “But they have to be focused. Don’t go halfway in.”