Wright-Patterson Reservists broaden Afghan workers’ job opportunities

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jason Lake
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan --  "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Reservists assigned to the 755th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron live by this proverb every day while trying to improve the infrastructure here and provide a better living for local Afghan workers.

In the past eight weeks, more than 50 civil engineer specialists deployed from the 445th Civil Engineer Squadron at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio have been putting together a training program to recruit and certify local workers for construction projects on base.

The Training Afghan Craftsmen program, or TAC, also aims to build up job résumés for local skilled workers with the goal of getting them higher paying jobs.

Staff Sgt. Mike Nelson, a readiness management specialist working as a structural craftsman who developed the training program, said the idea came a few months ago when a local worker providing unskilled labor told Nelson's unit that he was a skilled mason and could help on construction projects.

The unit let the contractor demonstrate his skills and was surprised to find an untapped resource.

"He did a great custom job that we could not have done," Nelson said. "He knew how to incorporate some of the local natural resources into the project. [After that] we realized we could use workers with these hidden talents as force multipliers on various construction projects."

Sergeant Nelson said his unit saw an opportunity to help workers they had come to know through various unskilled labor projects - while also providing certified labor continuity for the next rotation of Airmen who could use their skills sets.

Rather than start a training and certification system from scratch, Sergeant Nelson decided to use the Air Force enlisted Career Field Education and Training Plan as a template.

"The only thing that was missing was a verifiable system and training program," he said. "Now we're taking workers through a series of verifiable and quantifiable training events with core tasks just like in the CFETP."

Sergeant Nelson said the new TAC program has four major phases.

The application phase screens workers with at least some experience in a skill set from the pool of local workers who apply for work on Bagram.

After the screening process, Sergeant Nelson said the applicants are given a few days worth of safety and basic engineer skills training and taught basic English speaking for use in the workplace.

"We teach them things like how to work safely, or how to use a tape measure ... basic skills they'll need for any of the specialties we are training them in," explained Sergeant Nelson. "We also teach them English words used at the workplace like hammer, safety or lunch."

The workers then go on to the upgrade training phase, similar to enlisted upgrade training in the Air Force.

"We pair the workers up with one of our Airmen in the corresponding career field they're interested in for 12 to 18 months," he said. "Like Air Force upgrade training, we'll document their training and certify them on tasks for upgrade training on several different skill levels."

Sergeant Nelson said his unit then provides training certificates for the workers and also helps them write résumés in English and their native language, Dari, with the goal of fetching a higher paying contract job on- or off-base.

"The skills and training we give them will help them more in the long run than if we just built something for them," Sergeant Nelson explained.

Tech. Sgt. Clay Bucy, a structural craftsman for the 755th ECES, is training three carpenter apprentices how to cut dry wall for the first time while building a new mortuary affairs facility here.

"We've been showing them a few tricks of the trade," he said. "Once they're trained, we give them their tools and let them go at it."

Tech. Sgt. Jonathan Lemaster, a structural craftsman for the 755th ECES, supervises six TAC workers working for a month to expand Entry Control Point One where local villagers wait in line each day for random job opportunities.

"They've helped us with a lot of the big projects we're working on here at Bagram," the Independence, Ky.-native said of his carpenter apprentices who have developed their own friendly handshakes when they greet each other. "We're doing our part to win the hearts and minds of the local population. We have developed great relationships with them."

While Sergeant Nelson said developing the program took a lot of effort - building up relationships with his workers and finding creative ways to make contacts and get the resources needed to implement the program - but it was all for a good cause.

"It's all about engaging the system for their sake and finding people who want to know how to make themselves better and taking the initiative to help them do it," Sergeant Nelson explained. "If TAC helps these workers find a contractor who will pay them what they deserve, then I'm more than willing to put forth the effort," he said. "We hope this program will have a long-lasting effect on the workers and their families."