Wood Shop teacher John Toreson is ecstatic for the improvements being made in his class. New vocational training methods will allow his students to be better prepared entering the workforce after high school.

Toreson has been working intensively to establish this program for students because he knows that even in this depressed economy, people are still finding work in the construction industry. For three years, he has tried to implement a program with a wider range of construction trade areas.

Finally, through the Perking Grant, Toreson has been able to accomplish his dream for his students.

“They can go out and learn some job skills, and go get a job,” Toreson said. “This is geared more toward finding employment. That’s why it’s called Building Skills.”

Now students will gain more experience with a variety of building skills. This will also help them determine if their interest and aptitudes are suited for a construction career. For instance, with such an array of concepts, students will be able to determine their place in the construction field more specific to their individual interest.

The range of trades that Toreson will teach in his new architecture/construction program is much more diverse than before. Now students will learn building skills in the following construction fields: blueprint reading, cabinet making, electrical finish carpentry, hand tools, heating, ventilation & air conditioning, plumbing, power tools, roof framing, tile setting, wall framing and green technology.

The Paxton and Patterson’s Building Skills program will start next semester. This program will build a more successful construction education system through the new techniques that will help teach the concept more thoroughly. The students will learn in 10-day intervals, where they will get to work with a different skill set like electrical or carpentry.

Each activity will accommodate an instruction DVD. To follow along with the DVD, there will be photos and written text to reinforce what they learned. That way all the professional tools, equipment and video match the directions perfectly.

These tools will be full size and portable so that students comprehend the construction process to increase their knowledge and skills to a certain extent of reality.

Through this program, students will become more eligible for the construction industry and a career after they graduate high school. The Building Skills program will help improve dropout rates and help students obtain a career after high school.

In fact, this program is a certification program by the National Construction Career and Educational Research of the NCCER that contractors will recognize.

“A lot of kids are excited about getting their certification,” Toreson said. “It’ll give them an edge.”