Office of Civil Rights News
From Crane Operator to Career Navigator
 Akeethia Lloyd values growth. In the past eight years, she has taken herself from working in maintenance to operating cranes for highway construction to her current position. Now Lloyd is a Career Navigator with the Operating Engineers Local 49. She helps others to improve their lives like she has improved hers and her family’s.
“I start with providing information about Operating Engineer careers and apprenticeship. I find that most women or people of color have little to no information about the industry. The more information a person has, the more motivated and confident they are. Then I get them to thinking, ‘What is your why?’ Knowing your why helps you stay on track.”
For Lloyd, her daughter has always been her why. “She’s my reason for everything I do.” Lloyd was working part-time at Summit Academy OIC, a career and technical education institute. She was inspired by the women who completed Summit’s Heavy Equipment Pre-Apprentice Program. In partnership with Summit, MnDOT provided workforce development funds to offer this free training. Her coworkers encouraged her to enroll.
It wasn’t easy to start this journey. First, she had no car at the time. It took one hour on the bus to get her daughter to day care, then another hour to get to Summit. There she worked an hour-and-a-half before classes, then another work shift during lunch breaks, and another four hours after classes. Then the hour bussing to her daughter’s day care, and another hour home. The days were extremely long. Through it all, her daughter was her first and best “cheerleader.”
After 20 weeks of training in heavy equipment, Lloyd went for a mock interview with Lunda Construction. Lunda, as a MnDOT contractor, was participating in the Minnesota Department of Transportation On-the-Job Training program. The OJT program exists to offer equal opportunity for the training and upgrading of minorities, women, and disadvantaged persons toward journey-level status in the highway construction trades.
Even though it was a mock interview, Lloyd’s determination and practiced talking points made an impression. Lunda offered her a job on the spot. Her income quadrupled. The days of scraping by to make the rent and pay for childcare were over.
Lloyd worked on the Stillwater Bridge project as an OJT trainee. She oiled and maintained the cranes and was the eyes and ears for the crane operators. During the off-season, Lloyd pursued additional certifications at the Local 49 training center. She continued as an OJT trainee, working her way through apprenticeship on the 35W at I94 project, where she operated a crane.
In 2018, Lloyd was awarded Apprentice of the Year, the first female person of color to receive this recognition from Women Building Success. In addition to impressing her colleagues in the trades, Lloyd inspired her community, the people she grew up with. Her daughter’s friends saw firsthand that, yes, women work in highway construction. That was something they hadn’t seen before.
Lloyd especially enjoyed operating cranes. “In my own world up there, swinging back and forth, it’s pretty cool. I know what I’m doing. You see that progress and it feels good.” But after several years driving cranes, skid loaders, and other heavy equipment Lloyd thought it was “time to get uncomfortable again.” That’s when she heard about the position at Local 49.
As Local 49’s Career Navigator, Lloyd misses working in the field but finds satisfaction officially doing what she has always done: inspiring others. As a speaker, coach and motivator, Lloyd connects underrepresented populations, including women and BIPOC people, to opportunities in the industry. She also helps apprentices navigate through their apprenticeship. In this way, she’s come full circle.
MnDOT’s partnerships with training organizations, community-based organizations, tribal governments, and local and state government agencies continue to help women and BIPOC people gain meaningful employment in highway construction and grow their careers. In 2022, MnDOT trained 17 people in operating engineering and 107 people total across the trades. MnDOT continues to support record-breaking numbers of OJT trainees: 211 in 2021, and 231 in 2022. Over 70 percent of the OJT trainees are BIPOC people and 40 percent are women. And about 30 percent of OJT trainees are operating engineers, like Lloyd.
Lloyd’s daughter remains her best cheerleader. “She’s still my why,” Lloyd says. “It’s been an amazing journey.”
Photo credits: (top) Akeethia Lloyd operating a crane on the 35W@94 project. Photo by Lee Zutz. (bottom) Akeethia Lloyd on the job as a Career Navigator with Operating Engineers Local 49. Photo provided by Akeethia Lloyd.
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