ABC to Sponsor S.H.E.D. Program for High School Students
The ABC of the Carolina’s Schools to Careers Committee has been working in conjunction with Wake County Schools over the last year in an effort to encourage students to take an interest in career opportunities in the construction industry and to revitalize the industry’s workforce.
The first annual ABC Students’ Hands-on Experience Day (SHED) Competition will be held May 2nd and 3rd, 2017, at Cary High School. Area schools will be sending teams of four students per school to compete in a hands-on construction competition focused on safety, quality, communication and planning. Each team will have a limited amount of time to work together to construct a shed which will later be auctioned off and proceeds returned to a fund for future activities involving students in the construction industry.
Wake County high school carpentry students compete in a shed building contest designed by WCPSS drafting students. The event will be located at Cary High School from 8:00 until 2:00 both days.
What ABC Carolinas Schools to Careers and WCPSS are Doing!
The ABC Carolinas Schools to Careers committee is teaming local general contractors and subcontractors with local Wake County high schools to serve as mentors and increase awareness about and promote interest in construction related careers. This will be an ongoing partnership between the contractors and high schools to continually educate students about the construction industry. As part of the partnership with local high schools, we will also be hosting an annual shed building competition. The Students’ Hands-on Experience Day (S.H.E.D) will allow high school drafting and carpentry students to compete in a shed design and building competition. The drafting competition consists of creating framing plans and exterior elevations for a 8’0″x11’6″ shed. A panel of local architects will judge the drafting competition and determine the design winner. The design winners will be awarded laptops capable of supporting their school’s drafting software. Following the shed design competition, high school carpentry students will compete over a 2-day period to build the winning design. The general contractor and subcontractor team partners will be responsible for mentoring their high school teams prior to and throughout the build, but will not assist in the actual build. Mentoring will con-sist of educating students about safety, quality, planning, communication, and scheduling. The shed building competition will be judged by local building inspectors and safety officers from various construction companies.
Upon completion of the competition… Completed sheds will be auctioned off and the money will be used to support the efforts of the ABC Carolinas Schools to Careers committee and a scholarship will be setup for students to attend trade, vocational, or construction-related curricula. The shed competition winning schools will be awarded new power and hand tools donated by sponsors. Aside from drafting and carpentry classes, local high school media students will help design a website for ABC Carolinas Schools to Careers and the SHED competition in addition to filming the build competition. The website will serve as an additional resource to educate students, parents, and teachers about various career opportunities across the construction industry. In developing this committee, we have determined there is also a significant need for materials in classrooms. To help alleviate this problem, our outreach efforts will include donating unused or leftover construction materials and related resources to vocational and shop pro-grams in our local schools.
