Page 45 - Skills 2022

Making Your Career Work: Profiles of Young Workers
NO 4-YEAR DEGREE? NO PROBLEM
Think you need a traditional college degree to succeed in today’s economy? These
young workers
prove otherwise.
BY DAVID LEVINE
NICHOLAS WASICZKO
Mechanic Apprentice
STACY YONNONE
Machinist Apprentice
Nick Wasiczko, 24, born and raised in Yonkers, always loved tinkering with engines. He began working in a mechanic shop while at Saunders Trades & Technical High School. At age 19, he joined the Army, where he served for four years as a wheeled vehicle mechanic specialist. For the past two years, he has been
SUNY Westchester Community College collaborates with Metallica (yes, that Metallica) through the band’s foundation,
All Within My Hands, to offer certification programs in advanced manufacturing via the Metallica Scholars Initiative (MSI). Stacy Yonnone, 20, of New Windsor, had dropped out of Orange County
an employee at Transit Construction Corp. as a mechanic apprentice under the Operating Engineers Local 137.
“I was never big on school,” he says. “I did well, but it just wasn’t really my thing. It was hard to focus. I couldn’t sit still.” At Transit, he works on “a mixture of everything — diesel, light-duty pickup, welding, engine repair. Cars and trucks have always interested me. I like being around them, working on them. I don’t see it as work sometimes. It’s more like a hobby.”
That hobby, though, currently pays him almost $42 an hour. When he earns his union card, the full rate will be nearly $60 an hour. “People question why I didn’t go to [college], but it just wasn’t for me,” he says. “They don’t really question how I’m doing. They can see I’m doing pretty good.”
Community College and taken a job on an assembly line when she “stumbled into the Metallica program through my job,” she says. “I saw that this was trying to actually get you ready for the workforce, actually showed you what you needed.”
She had moved from the assembly line into a machinist apprenticeship at Bantam Tools in Peekskill, and jumped at the chance to increase her practical knowledge. “You can never learn too much,” she says. “The field is really starting to grow, and I just want to learn more about the field. There is more than meets the eye, and I love it.” She currently earns about $21 an hour, and could end up making $50 or more, she says.
“I understand the point of education. We need common core classes,” she says. “At the same time, you need to know you’re
What’s Hot. What’s Next. What’s Needed. 2022 SKILLS 43
© Courtesy of Nicholas Wasiczko
© Courtesy of Stacy Yonnone