Building Pathways & IUEC – Together Providing Career Paths

Building Pathways is a non-profit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. Their mission seeks to increase the number of diverse workers in the building trades workforce. Building Pathways works with International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Local 4 Boston to help the recruitment, retention and advancement of under-represented groups in the building trades.

“Building Pathways offers equal education and equal pay to females and minorities” says, Pat Sampson, business representative and Financial Secretary for IUEC Local 4 (Boston).

ElevatorInfo recently sat down with Desalia Gomes, a first-year apprentice at IUEC Local 4 (Boston) who got her start through a pre-apprenticeship program with Building Pathways. In this video (part of her graduation speech was “Hey Local 4, I’m coming for you”), she shares her story of how the program provided an access point for her starting her dream job in the elevator industry. “It’s one of those things where you put it out into the universe and see it transpire, it’s like I did that. It makes me really proud to have something I was aiming for and to reach that goal”.

Part of what drew Desalia to the elevator trade where she began in April of 2021, like so many, is the wide range of knowledge and skills that elevator mechanics need to know. “Within the elevator trade you can be an electrician, you’re going to learn to put in floors, you’re going to learn carpentry, you’re going to learn how to weld, you’re going to be working ducts and machine rooms” says Desalia.

Also, the appeal of job growth and new opportunities inside of the Elevator Trade seem to equally excite Gomes, “I want to make sure I’m not stuck in one place, I want to make sure I have avenues for growth and there is no ceiling above my head”.