A pre-apprenticeship program has helped a Joliet woman leave the fast food industry for a career in the trades, where she found work earlier this year as a carpenter apprentice on a solar farm project.

Taylor Dobson, 26, said when she was working in fast food, she advanced from crew member to shift lead and she was likely going to receive a promotion to assistant manager.

But Dobson said she didn’t want a career in fast food management because she was worried about retirement. She said getting into the trades was based on her “really thinking about my future,” and becoming a provider for her family.

“I had taken woodworking in high school and I really liked it. I like working with my hands, so it seemed like a logical step forward was to do that,” Dobson said.

Dobson said she had been looking to get into the trades because she wanted a stable career with strong pension and benefits.

But the barrier for entry was tough.

As Dobson was searching for jobs, her mother found out about Hire360 pre-apprenticeship program and sent her the link to fill out an application.

Hire360 is a Chicago-based workforce development nonprofit organization. The organization is one of many providers of a state pre-apprenticeship program. The state of Illinois invested $3 million into the program beginning in 2022.

The goal of the nine-week Hire360 program is to assist “underserved populations” with pursuing a career in the construction trades and help candidates enter unionized apprenticeship careers, according to the organization’s website.

The program offers apprenticeship site tours, test preparation classes, job readiness workshops, hourly stipends and support services.

“The big thing about the pre-apprenticeship program is that you’re taking classes but they pay you to be there,” Dobson said.

She said she didn’t think a “program like that would exist.”

“I figured there’d be programs that would help me, you know, try and guide me in the right path. But I didn’t think there would be programs that helped me monetarily too,” Dobson said.

Dobson earned industry certifications, connected with apprenticeship opportunities and received support navigating the union application process, according to Hire360.

‘They help you’

Hire360 continued to help her search for jobs even after she graduated from the program. Getting a union trade job is “very highly competitive” but Hire360 has “really good connections,” Dobson said

Eventually Dobson got work as a carpenter apprentice with Carpenters Local 174 and she worked on a solar farm project in Morris earlier this year.

“It was definitely cool. I really liked it,” Dobson said about the project.

Dobson said even if you have no construction experience, you can go into the trades depending on well you do on your tests and interviews. Dobson said the “biggest thing” in the trades is networking.

“You got to talk to people. You meet people, you learn their names [and] then they help you,” she said.

During a Hire360 graduation ceremony last year, Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant said the pre-apprenticeship program is a “key component” to modernizing how people are prepared for jobs in manufacturing.

Bertino-Tarrant said the program has also created an “equitable workforce and careers that has not always been accessible to everyone.”

“The [pre-apprenticeship program] and Hire360 is handing the keys to careers in the trades for those who have been locked out for too long,” Bertino-Tarrant said in 2025.

Dobson said Hire360 has been “invaluable.” She said the organization paid for her first year of union dues and the clothes she needed for a job site. She said the organization will also pay for books and gas for transportation.

She said she would recommend pre-apprenticeship programs.

“If anyone who’s looking to go into a trade, I would highly recommend trying to get into a program like that. Because you go through the process so much faster than if you were to try and do it on your own,” Dobson said.