Launched in the fall of 2016, Kevin Plank’s Port Covington Manufacturing Bootcamp is a pre-apprenticeship program created to teach Baltimore-area residents a broad range of skills and offer exposure to building trades to better equip them to explore careers in manufacturing.
The multi-week course is led by The Foundery and the Center for Urban Families (CFUF) and sponsored by Sagamore Development, Whiting-Turner, and The Commercial Group. The Bootcamp is one of many programs sponsored by Sagamore Development to ensure that Baltimore’s residents and the City’s workforce share the economic success of Port Covington.
As you’ll learn from watching the video, the Bootcamp has a unique and comprehensive curriculum. On Mondays during the course, participants spend time at the Center for Urban Families engaging in career-readiness training and learning about financial planning. During the balance of the week, the Bootcamp classes focus on a wide variety of skills, including woodworking, welding, CNC (computer numerically controlled) machinery, textiles, 3D printing and more. The program affords participants a membership to The Foundery and a stipend to purchase supplies or to take additional classes. As members of The Foundery, participants have full access to the maker space during business hours and many choose to use the membership to stay after class to work on projects, or network and collaborate with members outside of the program.
On March 9, 2017, the second participant group of the Port Covington Manufacturing Bootcamp completed the program and celebrated at a closing ceremony, where this video was shown to supporters, including Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank. Sagamore Development and the Center For Urban Families are continuing to make improvements to the program with each group, hoping to provide job and career training for many more Baltimoreans in the months and years ahead!
