Brendan, NASCAR and Equus transcript

This apprenticeship took my life in a complete 180. I never thought I would be in NASCAR or see myself in the position I am without it, so I can't even really remember much before it because it's become everything now.

The story we have with Brandon is a great example of a young person who did not have direction, but found their passion in motorsports and had the opportunity through apprenticeship and through on the job training with Centralina Workforce Development Board, our NCWorks career centres, to find a way to do that.

When we first started talking to each other and talking about the components, we spent many, many days, nights tossing ideas back and forth to get the perfect fit for what Trackhouse needs. And as they started registering apprentices, it's just been so fun.

I think change is always good and definitely exploring different passions and NCWorks gave me an opportunity to do that.

It worked out for me, thankfully, and thanks to NCWorks, but had I not got in touch with them and then worked out the pre apprenticeship in their apprenticeship, I never would have known that this is something that is for me.

He was like eager, ready to explore something different, simply because he said he wasn't doing what he thought he should do and he knew that his brother was being very successful at Trackhouse.

And so he was like, “I think I'll give it a try.”

My brother's been in the sport for a really long time, and I kind of watched his journey coming into the sport. It's not something easy to do. So I never saw it as a career path for me until Phil Foster reached out with the NCWorks apprenticeship opportunity. I think I had about a week to decide, so it was kind of scary.

Coming up here, uprooting his life from Florida, moving in North Carolina and pursuing a completely different career. It's a big leap of faith to do, especially when you don't have a guaranteed, income if you will.

The biggest thing was I was scared from making money to not making any money.

So through NextGen Services, we were able to incorporate work experience.

They were able to help get me paid when I started, and it definitely earned it. Being in the shop and doing different jobs from the machine shop to tear down mechanic and kind of just learning ins and outs.

Brendan is, you know, the epitome of what we're looking for, for this program from a personality standpoint, a value standpoint and a skill set obviously, he’s bar none, so all stars aligned, if you will, on that front.

I think the noteworthy part is that he had no clue at first what all he could be. You know, and with the help of Trackhouse and NextGen and NCWorks and Monica and the team, NC Apprenticeship, everybody pulling together, now he has such a good future ahead of him.

NCWorks helped me tremendously. There's a lot of good people in the building and it's hard to get your foot in the door. So NCWorks helped me get my foot in the door and get me started. And they checked on me throughout the way. Monica was in my email every other day. So yeah, they were there every step.

There's a lot of hard workers out there that just need a need a foot in the door need a chance, and a program like this is, what gives them that capability. Any kind of company can have an apprenticeship program. And I think establishing a program like this is a good stepping stone, not just for evaluating talent, but for giving people opportunities that they may not have thought about otherwise.

NCWorks has definitely helped me find a passion for racing that I wouldn't have even known about, you know, prior to it. It's hard to see life before that because it's so encompassing now. And to think that there is this whole career and career path out there that I really didn't know much about to now it's what I do every day come in the building and work for and strive for it. This is it, I love it. I got the bug for sure.