With the incessant roar of the Blue Angels overhead, I almost missed an incredible story in this week’s Seattle P-I on the power of pre-apprenticeship training for dropout students.

For most high school dropouts, and particularly those with past criminal records, obtaining a family-wage job is a near impossible challenge. But for Bob Markholt and the Seattle Vocational institute, the challenge of preparing struggling young men and women has become a transformative opportunity.

Located in Seattle’s Central District and a relatively unknown branch of the city’s community college system, to date, the Seattle Vocational District has steered about 250 students away from their pasts and into more lucrative careers in the construction trades.

"These kids don't have great expectations," Markholt told the P-I. "And they've certainly had plenty of white guys tell them how to fix their lives."

The difference may be the vocational school's small classes, or Markholt's plain-spoken style. But most of his students say it is simply that he offers a type of learning that ends with a tangible reward – a job. Ninety-two percent of those who make it through his six-month course find work, and their salaries start at $40,000 to $60,000 a year.

“Yet the training program, which is free and also provides tutoring to help students obtain their high school equivalency degrees, is still something of a secret more than a decade after its founding,” according to the P-I.

New entrants, 90 percent of whom are minorities, learn about it primarily through word of mouth, and Markholt spends much of his time scrambling to raise two-thirds of the $477,000 needed annually to fund the classes.

As a nonprofit, we certainly know how hard fundraising can be, but we simply can’t think of a better cause than that of Markholt’s. Hats off to the Seattle Vocational Institute for their commitment to turning the lives of dropout students around!

To learn more about the Seattle Vocational INnstitute, visit their website.