Manuel Garcia was well on his way on the path from recovery from addiction and a criminal background, but he struggled to find a career. To support his three kids, he worked manufacturing, warehouses, landscaping, construction, and odd jobs. None of these offered him or his family a secure future.

Growing up, Garcia would help his dad who owned a construction company in Aurora, IL. Garcia helped his dad with cement finishing. As Garcia grew desperate to establish a career, his dad said, “Why don’t you try the unions?” But Garcia was trying to avoid having to start out at the very bottom as an unskilled laborer – he was already 40, with a family. But he took his dad’s advice and reached out to the Laborers' International Union of North America LiUNA, who connected him with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

DEED partners with MnDOT to provide workforce training programs for people seeking work in highway construction. DEED’s employment and training specialist, Sylvia Garcia, reached out to Garcia and explained that if he completed MnDOT’s cement masonry-laborer program, he would be qualified to start as a cement finisher.

Garcia passed the assessment test and signed up for the six-week course. Although he had some experience from working with his dad, he had a lot to learn like the names of the tools and the proper steps to take for pouring and finishing. His dad had just told him do this, do that. After training with the supportive instructors, Garcia works self-directed now. The training “is tough. You have to want it and learn from your mistakes,” Garcia said. He received a job offer the week before graduation and started working the next week.

Garcia is a first-year apprentice with Legends Concrete, headquartered in Rochester. He is especially proud of his finishing work on the roundabout at the interchange of I35 and Hwy 19. “It felt good to see a project through from start to finish.” Garcia says, “Now I drive by and see it in use. I tell my kids that’s something that I helped build.”