Course Trains Students for Ready Jobs

CREST HAVEN – Students in James Kay’s Carpentry and Property Management class hammered and measured siding for a storage building they were constructing just outside their classroom at the Cape May County Technical High School May 24.    
The class mixes math, writing, language arts, team-building as well as using other educational elements.
The long-term goal, aside from graduating skilled workers ready for employment, is to supply the county with future carpenters.
According to a report by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “Employment of carpenters is projected to grow 6 percent from 2014 to 2024, about as fast as the average for all occupations.”
The BLS noted that, as of May 2016, in New Jersey a carpenter’s mean wage was $60,380 annually, or $29.03 per hour. While a young carpenter, fresh out of school, may not earn that immediately, with the certificate gained by graduating, and diligent job performance, it is possible to attain that without heavy college student loan debt.
As carpenters age, fewer replacements have been ready to replace them. It is reported that in 1985, the average age of a construction worker was 36 years old, in 2008 it rose to 40.4 years old, and their ages continue to rise, according to “The Aging Worker in the U.S. Construction Industry,” Occupational Health and Safety, a website.
Because of that BLS reported, “Overall job prospects for carpenters should be good over the coming decade as construction activity continues to grow. There remains a need to replace many carpenters who left the occupation since 2006.”
Armed with those facts and other local reasons at the March 2015 Board of School Estimate hearing before freeholders, the Technical School district asked the board for a one-time expenditure of an additional $250,000. That money was used to upgrade the classroom that is used by Kay’s students to learn all phases of carpentry which is also an integral part of property management.
Why property management? It has been stated that the county has the state’s highest number of second homes, many of them on barrier islands. Because of those dwellings, there is a continuing need for renovations, repairs, and maintenance. Many contractors find it difficult to hire skilled trade workers.
Because of that, the school district was told by local contractors that out-of-state builders were often seen on weekends doing work that they, the local contractors, could have done but often lacked trained workers.
Knowing that dilemma the school modified its construction course to the present one that links various areas into a single course.
The Carpentry and Property Management course is a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program that a student takes for three years.
According to a course description: As a student progresses through each year, the student has the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and beliefs needed to successfully pursue career and college pathways.
Students in this program will learn the skills required to build and repair residential structures with a focus on new construction materials, techniques, construction codes, electrical repairs, plumbing repairs, masonry, and carpentry.
Graduates are prepared to enter certified union apprenticeship programs with industry credentials, including the OSHA 10-hour Construction (safety and other requirements) and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) safety readiness.
The program is articulated with Atlantic Cape Community College for college credit with that post-secondary institution.
Superintendent Nancy Hudanich noted that course graduates, in addition to receiving their certificates, also receive 25 credits toward their associate degree at Atlantic Cape.
Superintendent Dr. Nancy Hudanich was asked by Peter Jespersen of Cape Issues, who toured along with Rusty Miller, also of Cape Issues, how the course differs from those offered in some other districts.
Hudanich replied such classes in other school districts are electives. At the Technical High School “This course is for three years, 80 minutes a day, five days a week.”
Kay noted that the class’ students, two on a scaffold busy measuring for siding, the rest preparing the siding and getting other material, had designed the storage building, calculated the material required, and then erected the building.
A majority of Kay’s students were 10th graders. They look forward to careers wearing tool belts, wielding hammers, and helping build futures in Cape May County.