Jon Anderson
Adil Saleh
Adil Saleh, an incoming junior at Hoover High School, has been accepted into the Skilled Trades Academy at the Riverchase Career Connection Center. Here, he is shown in the garage workshop where he has helped his father with various construction projects.
The Hoover school system’s new Skilled Trades Academy at the Riverchase Career Connection Center is a step forward in helping meet demand for new construction industry workers, Bill Caton, chief operating officer for the Alabama Associated General Contractors, said.
Every year, there are on average 335 carpentry job openings in the eight Southeasternmost states, according to the national Associated General Contractors.
There also are on average 310 job openings for electricians, 160 job openings in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), 155 job openings for equipment operators and 145 job openings in welding, according to data the association pulled from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Many people in the construction trades are reaching retirement age, and “we’re losing ‘em faster than we’re getting ‘em,” Caton said.
There’s a big need to fill those jobs, and Hoover’s new Skilled Trades Academy is a unique program that will help prepare students to make a positive impact, Caton said.
About 125 students from Hoover and Spain Park high schools and about half a dozen from Homewood High School signed up for the first year of the Skilled Trades Academy, which begins Aug. 8, said Brian Copes, the lead teacher for the academy.
The first year, students will take a course that introduces them to carpentry, electrical work, welding and HVAC, Copes said.
The introductory course will teach the basics of each trade, as well as focus on safety and tool usage.
In the second year, students will be able to focus in more detail on the trade or trades that interest them the most, he said. Other potential future courses include plumbing, heavy equipment operation and advanced manufacturing.
Students will have an opportunity to become certified in workplace safety and earn industry credentials in each of the trades being taught, Copes said.
The academy will offer a lot of hands-on instruction, with students having access to power tools, a welding lab with 20 welding booths, welding and electrical simulators and a welding robot donated by E-Box, he said.
There also will be a natural gas furnace and fully functioning air conditioner and heat pumps. Instructors will put faults in the equipment and let students troubleshoot, Copes said. “It will be as close to workplace scenarios as we can get it.”
Students also will be expected to wear appropriate attire for those trades, including work boots, visibility vests and safety glasses, just like they are going to a job, Copes said. “Our focus is to prepare these kids for work in all aspects.”
Carpentry students will build concrete forms, and students will make concrete storm shelters that can be sent to cities or schools for actual use, he said.
The equipment being installed for the academy costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, Copes said.
Partners with industry
The Alabama Associated General Contractors group has been a vital partner, he said. The group helped plan construction of the Skilled Trades Academy part of the school, committed $100,000 to buy tools and equipment, and is applying for more than $500,000 in grants for additional equipment.
AGC members also are providing instructors who are experienced in the various trades.
The academy’s advisory board includes people from companies such as 3D Heating & Air, Alabama Power Co., Brasfield & Gorrie, Hardy Mechanical, Marathon Electric, On Time Services and Sentry Heating & Air.
Copes said he didn’t connect with school very well as a child. But he went on to get an associate’s degree in construction and then decided to become a teacher. He earned a bachelor’s degree in education and spent a few years as a teacher but wasn’t renewed in two jobs. He left teaching and worked as a journeyman carpenter for three years, but he returned to teaching and has been doing it more than 25 years.
In 2012, People magazine named him as one of five Teachers of the Year, and in 2017 the Varkey Foundation named him among the top 50 teachers in the world. He is coming to Hoover from Thompson High School, where he taught engineering.
He heard about Hoover’s Skilled Trades Academy and had to be part of it, he said. He likes the idea of tailoring English and math lessons to fit the construction trades so students see real-world applications.
Math lessons can include measurements for construction jobs, calculations for the volume of concrete needed to complete a job and financial estimates, and English lessons can involve reading blueprints and technical manuals, he said.
Adil Saleh, who will be a junior at Hoover High this coming year, said he applied to be part of the Skilled Trades Academy because he has worked with tools with his father and found out he was good at it. He wants to learn about the different trades his first year and figure out a specialty, he said. He envisions himself going straight to work after high school.
So what appeals to him about the construction trades?
“If you have tools, you can make something and help other people out,” he said.
Income potential
Caton said people starting out in the non-residential construction industry straight out of high school can make $12 an hour and work their way up to about $20 an hour within a few years.
The average pay for construction workers in Alabama is $50,500, 15 percent more than the average pay for all private sector employers in the state, he said. Foremen and supervisors can make $60,000 to $100,000 a year, he said. For those who own their own companies, “the sky is the limit,” Copes said.
Caton said the Skilled Trades Academy that Hoover is building is truly unique.
“They’ve done an absolute fantastic job with it,” he said. “You couldn’t ask for a better place to do this. It’s going to be a cutting-edge thing. … I don’t know of another high school that does it.”
What makes it unique is the quality of the facility itself, the way the program is designed to simulate actual workplaces and the involvement of industry, Caton said.
The fact that students will be receiving instruction from people who have made careers in those trades and have real-world experience means a lot, he said. Instructors will be able to adequately prepare students for what they will actually encounter in the construction trades, he said.
And Hoover is making a significant financial investment in the academies, giving it the same level of support that the academic side of education gets, Caton said. Students entering the trades are not being treated like an afterthought, he said. “This is a real sea change in Alabama — this type of school.”
The Associated General Contractors also likes that Hoover plans to expand the academy to train adults at night, Caton said. Copes said there is a 95% chance the academy will offer night classes for adults.
This will help adults looking to get into the industry or to improve their skills, and it will help students further their training after they graduate high school, he and Caton said.
For example, students who achieve the first level of credentials in carpentry or electrical work while in high school can continue their studies and become a master carpenter or master electrician, Caton said.
It’s a win for students and a win for companies looking for trained workers, he said. “I think it’s a very important thing to do for our kids.”
