Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Tenn. District Considering Trade School for High-School Students

  • By Matt Jones
  • 04/20/21

At the Hamilton County School Board meeting last week in Chattanooga, Tenn., the board donated an out-of-use school building for potential use as a partial-day construction school for high-school students. Board members said that the trade school could prove useful for both high-school students and adults interested in learning the relevant skills.

“There is hard work, but it’s rewarding,” said Nic Cornelison, Chairman of the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of East Tennessee. “We want to teach folks to work with their hands.”

Cornelison said the program would be geared toward high-school juniors and seniors and teach them the “building blocks” of the industry. “It’s not every day that you just get to show up and build stuff, you get to see what you’ve accomplished at the end of every day,” he said.

Hamilton County Schools officials call the potential construction workforce center a “massive, nonprofit, collaborative effort” throughout the district and with other organizations like AGC and Chattanooga State Community College.

According to Cornelison, the construction industry is actively looking to strengthen its workforce. He said the average construction worker is 49 years old, and that for every five workers who leave the job or retire, only one gets replaced. He said the biggest hurdle to hiring is getting people interested in the position.

“Eventually, you can become your own boss and start your own company,” said Assistant Superintendent Foreman Slade McGuire. “There is such a need from an expiring, older generation for new people to come in with a passion for it.”

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • Virginia Tech Tops Out New College of Engineering Building

    Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., recently celebrated the topping out of Mitchell Hall, which will soon stand as the largest College of Engineering building on campus, according to a news release. The university partnered with Skanska on the 285,500-square-foot facility, which has an expected completion date of winter 2028.

  • Dallas-Area District Debuts Three New Facilities

    The Duncanville Independent School District in southwest Dallas, Texas, recently held ribbon-cutting ceremonies for three new facilities that resulted from a $170-million bond program passed in 2023, according to a news release.

  • Secret to Efficient, On-Time School Infrastructure & Modernization Projects is All in the Preparation

    Warmer weather and longer days make summer the ideal time for construction and modernization projects at educational facilities. School boards and construction firms must coordinate effectively to ensure that these projects do not extend even a single day into the school year and impede classroom operation.