After suffering a stroke, John Sciara knew his body could no longer support the demands of sheet metal work. A veteran, union sheet metal worker, Sciara, 53, graduated from apprenticeship in 1992 and has steadily worked for 27 years. Not ready to retire from CS3, Inc, he took his skills from the shop floor to the company’s drafting department.

Computer literacy was his first step. “They didn’t have computers in school when I was an apprentice,” says Sciara, laughing at the thought. Then SMART Local 4 and the International Training Institute (ITI), the education arm of the sheet metal industry, paid for more than 120 hours of training as part of his union membership.