Congratulations to Our First Teen Apprenticeship Program Graduates!

We said goodbye to our first cohort of teen apprentices at the end of June with mixed emotions - it’s sad to to know they won’t be around the shop as much anymore, but hearing about their plans for the rest of their summer makes it so you can’t help but be excited for them!

Our four apprentices spent the last five weeks studying bike mechanics at the shop and applying their lessons on the shop floor and in our programs - leading a basic teen bike mechanic class for peers referred to us from the International Rescue Committee. Thanks to funding from Idaho Gives earlier this year, we were able to kickstart this new program.

The apprentice program started in earnest more than two months ago when participants first filled out applications to the program detailing their goals for themselves, how work experience at a bike shop would help those goals, and what their comfort level was across various areas of skill they could expect to work in including operating a cash register, leading mechanic lessons, and working with shop customers. 

Most of the apprentices had never been employed before and were interested in developing soft skills transferable to anywhere they would apply. In that way, Boise Bicycle Project’s apprenticeship program was like all of its programming – bicycles were used as a tool, but the focus was always on education and empowering others.

Today, four teenagers who told us two months ago that they didn’t feel comfortable answering phones and had never worked in a customer service role can look back proudly on the work they did facilitating our front of shop and developing lessons to teach bike mechanic skills they only just developed themselves to others - often while having to account for language barriers between them and participants in our programs. 

Following the conclusion of their apprenticeship all four teens are off to exciting next steps. Simon and Sergio have both applied for new positions and asked to use our shop as a reference on their resumes, Flor just secured her first-ever job at a restaurant on the Bench, and Kyle has plans to raise money himself by mowing lawns in his neighborhood so he can balance his busy bike racing schedule with work.

Boise Bicycle Project is also planning exciting next steps… Our next goal for the teen apprenticeship program is to partner with the Idaho Department of Labor to establish paid apprenticeship positions that would allow apprentices to work even longer at the shop… up to six months! These paid positions would be open to applicants referred to us from the community partners our youth programs serve and will allow us to employ members of the communities we know face the greatest barriers to dependable transportation to build better networks between our shop and those we serve.