Publication date: 05/21/2010

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High schools give head-start in construction

When I was in high school, students could take wood or metal shop classes to learn the basics of a career in the construction trades. Today, however, school districts have taken that concept much further by offering programs that teach students all the aspects of residential home building and remodeling, and give them hands-on experience building homes.

In Metro Detroit, we have a number of career and technical centers in school districts that offer two-year programs to help students prepare for a career in the construction trades.

These programs give students competencies in everything from surveying and site preparation to concrete and block masonry, rough and finish carpentry, blueprint reading, painting and drywall. They also get a good understanding of both plumbing and electrical.

Joe Churches, an instructor in the building trades program at Dakota High School in Macomb Township, said the school's program began in the late '70s, and originally students built homes that were sold to the public. However, with the opening of a dedicated 10,000 square-foot building on the high school's campus a few years ago, the students have been building manufactured houses right inside the facility.

"During the past four years, we have built one manufactured house annually, and these homes are used locally by Habitat for Humanity," Churches said.

In addition to the home building experience, his students also get involved in other, smaller construction projects, such as building a retaining wall, installing a sign at the front of the school and building a set of stairs.

"When students get done with this program, they have the skills and knowledge needed to pursue an apprenticeship, go to a trade school or even get a degree in construction management from one of the state universities," Churches said.

Many of these high school programs have agreements with local community colleges to enable the high school students to earn college credits. For example, students graduating from Dakota High School with completion of the construction building trades program will receive select credit in the applied technology program at Macomb Community College.

Janet Haas, principal of Livonia Public Schools Career Technical Center, said their residential construction program began in 1978, and back in the day the students also built houses that would then be sold to the public. However, due to the tough economy, the program still has two homes available from previous years. As a result, the students are getting experience in another important area of residential construction.

"This year, we are partnering with the City of Livonia to renovate a foreclosed home in the city to prepare it for sale," Janet said.

Like the Livonia Public Schools program, the construction technology program offered at the Wayne-Westland Schools' Career-Technical Center used to focus on building homes, but this year, students also are renovating a foreclosed home, this one in the city of Wayne.

"We bought a foreclosed home in Wayne this year, and the students have totally gutted it and renovated it," said Mike Koelzer, one of two instructors in the Construction Technology program. He said generally the first year of the two-year program is in the "lab" while second-year students spend the majority of their time at the actual building site.

While all these programs certainly give students hands-on construction experience, they also include a heavy dose of math that is so important in the building trades.

"In today's class, we are working on building stairs, so the students have spent a lot of time doing math calculations," Koelzer said.

While we are certainly in a housing slump in Michigan at the moment, that will change, and residential home building jobs will return. If you have a child in high school who loves to build things and work with his or her hands, you might want to see if your school district has one of these fine construction curriculums available.

If you would like to learn more about what these types of programs offer, Dakota High School is holding an open house on June 4 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at its on-campus construction facility. For more information, contact the school at (586) 723-2700.

Note: This article was accurate at the date of publication. However, information contained in it may have changed. If you plan to use the information contained herein for any purpose, verification of its continued accuracy is your responsibility.

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