<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge) Photo courtesy of Snohomish County Workforce Development Council Learning how to lay bricks properly was just one of the many construction trades experienced by more than 300 students from Snohomish County schools who attended May’s WDC Construction Carnival at the Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center in Everett.

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CONTACT SCBJ John Wolcott, Editor jwolcott@scbj.com Dave Clark, Assistant Editor dclark@scbj.com

Construction Carnival a big hit with students

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

More than 300 students converged on Everett’s Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center on May 7, spending their day building take-home sheet-metal tool carriers, laying bricks, riding boom-lifts, cutting glass, firing nail guns and chatting with representatives of various construction trades.

The occasion marked the second annual Construction Carnival sponsored by the Snohomish County Workforce Development Council. Both students and teachers called the event fabulous, including the hamburgers, soft drinks and an array of food provided during the day.

“Not only did the students enjoy using their hands, but they were impressed with the knowledge and professionalism of the representatives from the various trades,” Terry Manhardt wrote to the WDC after bringing 26 eighth-graders from Everett’s Eisenhower Middle School to the event. “Our students participated in a number of construction tasks, and they were shown how to do them correctly, reinforcing the importance of quality work.”

Students also learned about construction industry internships available after high school graduation, Manhardt said, and about a variety of job and career options.

“Our students filled out a brief survey afterward, and 100 percent of them felt Eisenhower (students) should go on the same field trip next year,” she said. “When several of our seventh-graders saw the older students putting their tool carriers in their lockers they asked if I would be taking more next year. In fact, we’re already hoping for a third construction carnival.”

Marysville School District Career and Technical Education Director Carol Davis wrote that the teacher she had sent to the carnival called her as soon as he returned to the school to tell her “how great it was for his students.”

The first carnival drew a much lighter crowd last year at the Navy Family Support Center in Marysville. This year’s success was due in great part to the partnership with the Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center, with a more central location, ample room for dozens of school buses and its own array of courses related to the building and technical trades and professions.

“This was an astounding success this year,” said Sam Samano, the WDC’s service delivery manager for business who organized and managed the event with the help of the Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center, Snohomish County Construction Careers Partnership, Western Washington Sheet Metal JATC, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Edmonds Community College, Brightwater Treatment System, Star Rentals and the Master Builders Career Connection.

She credited the skills center director, Steve Burch, who recently joined the WDC’s board of directors, for his invitation to hold the carnival at the center and noted that Brightwater helped to fund the buses and substitute teachers; each vendor contributed $100 toward the lunches; and the Master Builders Career Connection provided funding to cover the rest of the expenses.

“When the kids are so excited about this and talk to their parents, then they get excited,” Samano said. “It helps to counter a common impression that the construction industry is too cyclical and too low paying. When the kids learn you can start an apprenticeship at $20 an hour while you’re learning a trade, that the entire field is well paying and requires highly trained people, then it changes their image.”

Sue Ambler, the WDC’s chief executive, also was at the event, welcoming each group of students and providing them with an overview of the Construction Carnival’s activities and learning opportunities before they dispersed to experience the event’s varied options for the day.

“Students have told us they definitely want hands-on experiences, so that’s what we’ve been providing. ... The mentoring aspect of the construction trades is very important and has a lot of impact on students,” Samano said. “They learn that your skills become your intellectual property, things you can travel with and use in so many ways in so many industries.”

More information is available online at www.wdcsc.org.