The Story

Build A Pro Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 Apprenticeship Intermediary Organization based in Salina, Kansas. Build A Pro helps address the growing labor shortage and helps the Salina, Kansas, community. Focused on serving the local community by seeking to cut through the "red tape" of starting or running an apprenticeship program. We support people searching for meaningful work to find purpose and value across industries by partnering with employers and educational institutions to build targeted apprenticeship programs. Build A Pro believes that the best service to a community is to grow the individual members' professional ability to meet more community needs.

Build A Pro offers apprenticeships that connect individuals to meaningful employment and career opportunities, and it has a passion for matching people’s talents and abilities with opportunities. Build A Pro connects people to employment in various fields and industry sectors, including traditional and non-traditional apprenticeship trades. Build A Pro partners with local companies to build apprenticeships and then manage those apprenticeships on the employer’s behalf.

Build A Pro believes the apprenticeship model aligned with the individual's talent creates the ideal formula for long-term workforce placement success. The 5 divisions of Build A Pro specialize in helping people from various backgrounds achieve career success and long-term placement. Build A Pro partners with several non-profit organizations to help connect apprentices with wrap-around services to help them thrive.

The Co-founders of Build a Pro, Ashley and Amanda Jarvis, of Salina, Kansas, have worked since 2021 to bring this mission into action by achieving 501(c)3 status in May of 2023. Launching from a foundation of their varied experience in Public, Private, and Nonprofit work, the community's needs became obvious. Ashley Jarvis is our Director of Divisions. He is also a real estate agent in the Salina, Kansas community. As a real estate agent, he saw that contractors were delayed in servicing the demands for different projects in the Salina area because of labor shortages. Additionally, due to our booming industries, more people want to move to Salina, Kansas. However, Salina has also been experiencing a housing inventory shortage for several years, which has made finding a home a challenge for newcomers.

Amanda Jarvis is our Chief of Staff. She has a Masters of Counseling Psychology and a Masters of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Amanda brings knowledge from academia, finance, start-up, and nonprofit industries, including her role as an AmeriCorps Fellow at the City of Salina. She worked on several projects to bring additional housing to the Salina area. While new homes are slowly added to the market, the contractors already scrambling to keep up with demands will only get busier. It became obvious that home-growing talent to meet the needs of the Salina community was the answer.

Because of these combined factors, NOW is the time for Build a Pro!

Salina has many opportunities for jobs as well as many current citizens who can learn new or upskill their talents and abilities. People learning a trade through apprenticeship receive the income of a full-time job AND the training from technical instruction simultaneously. Build A Pro is proud to serve our community by providing apprenticeships for individuals as young as 16 from diverse backgrounds.