AWC program is building the future

A vocational program at Arizona Western College may just be a year old, but nail by nail it's already helping to build Yuma's future.

The Construction Trades program aims to provide the current boom in commercial building with well-trained hands, while giving local men and women a viable and profitable career.

"There is such a demand for skilled labor out there," said professor Frank Orta, who oversees the carpentry program. "There's a lot of money to be made by workers."

Construction Trades was born a year ago when AWC added programs for carpentry, electrical and plumbing to its existing line-up of vocational courses. The three new programs are located in a new building near Araby Road and 32nd Street; the others are still housed on the main campus.

"One of these days we'll all be housed together," Orta said. "My dream is one very big building where we could actually construct houses."

He added that the program is also currently negotiating with local contractors to give students the chance to learn by working on projects out in the community.

"I always say the best way to teach someone how to build a house is to build a house," Orta said chuckling.

The Construction Trades program issues training certificates and also complements AWC's associate degrees in the vocational field. Those include air conditioning and refrigeration, architectural technology, construction management and welding. Workshops can also be given when the construction industry expresses need for a specific training, such as a brief session on garage door installation.

On a typical day carpentry students might be working on the frame of a small building, while electrical students thread wires through mock walls rigged with switches, outlets and fuse boxes. Plumbing students, meanwhile, learn their skills by intstalling pipes and fixtures in a mock bathroom unit that's elevated off the ground with peeled-away walls for all-around viewing.

So far the electrical program has proved the most popular, according to Orta, while the plumbing portion has yet to attract the number of students that program officials think it deserves.

"I think we just need to get the word out about these classes," the professor said. "As people find out about our program the number of students is just going to snowball and keep growing."

Two years ago, AWC officials asked employers what kind of trained workers they needed and professionals in the construction industry cried out for skilled help to keep up with current growth trends.

"The need for construction just keeps getting bigger and bigger, too," Orta said. "Residential has gone down, but commercial is definitely on the rise. It's everywhere."

He added that building contractors frequently stop by the program's offices looking for students to hire.

The professor stressed that the days of solely learning the construction trade on the job alone are truly gone. He explained that contractors expect so much more of workers in today's industry and prefer to have them arrive on the building site trained and ready to build. Contractors also expect workers to have extensive safety training, which is more a modern phenomena.

Orta also pointed to the program's certifications, which give solid credibility to workers competing for jobs.

Students can enroll in Construction Trades programs, which typically run five and a half months, or students can take classes individually.

"Some students just want to take blueprint reading and then leave," he said.

The new classes, which are mostly three and four credits, are offered in two sessions for students' convenience: 8 a.m. to noon and 6 to 9 p.m.

Students in the Construction Trades program represent a diverse mix of backgrounds and goals, too.

"I have students who want to be engineers or architects and I have students right out of high school who are taking classes so they can just get a job working in construction," Orta said. "Other students are adults looking for the opportunity of a new career."

Program administrators help students get jobs after graduating from the program and track those students for up to a year to assure a good fit.

"We just want the best for our students and the local construction trade," Orta said. "Yuma is our community and we just want to help it grow."

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AWC CONSTRUCTION TRADES: WHAT PROGRAMS ARE OFFERED?

New programs...

Carpentry

Electrical

Plumbing

Longstanding programs...

Drafting and Architectural Technology

Air-conditioning and refrigeration

Welding

Automotive

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WANT MORE INFORMATION?

Stop by 7016 E. 30th St. Suite 101 (From 32nd Street turn north onto Araby Road. Turn east onto 30th Street.)

Call 344-7510

Go to www.azwestern.edu

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Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.