Student builders earn while learning trade

About 20 high school students from Carson Valley and Carson City toured the Bing Gravel Pit and the Heritage Nevada home project in the Gardnerville Ranchos on Friday, to learn about a program that could help them learn skills to be employed in the construction industry.

Students in Nevada Center for Vocational Education and Research's Earn While You Learn Program are paid for time spent in the field working while learning the skills needed to become part of the construction industry.

"The program assists people to become construction workers and is focused on people who have little or no experience," said Carl Dahlen, program coordinator of the Nevada Center for Vocational Education and Research.

Dahlen said students attend school at Western Nevada Community College from 6-8 a.m. then work on the Sierra Assisted Living Foundation's Ellington Manor project on Kimmerling Road in the Ranchos.

"A year ago we started with 18 people, 15 with no experience. Of that, eight or 10 are still working on site," Dahlen said.

Students in the program attend college courses in basic safety, math, power tools, blueprint reading and will choose from different crafts such as carpentry or plumbing.

A building apprenticeship program is offered at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"If you're going to be a construction worker, you'll need a place to work," Dahlen told the students. "You'll go to school, go to work and eventually have a job."

Kit Carson Development construction manager Pete Coates told the students if they receive training and learn a trade they could be making $20-25 per hour.

"Who wants to be earning $40,000-50,000 two to three years out of high school - wouldn't that be nice?" Coates said.

He said students will be trained in the new technology of the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Star certification and other green building technologies.

"If you learn this, you'll be cutting edge," he said.

For information about Nevada Center for Vocational Education and Research programs, call Kit Carson Development at 265-2818.