Akeel King plans to be a civil engineer. Ryan Chang and Mike Xiong are interested in architecture. All three spent last summer building a garage from scratch, learning everything from cement work to shingles. UnderConstruction provides six to eight weeks of paid summer work and learning. The Construction Careers Coalition sponsors the program, which completed its eighth summer in 2012. Funding comes from participating contractors and foundations, as well as the Holiday Lights in the Park event.
UnderConstruction has two goals: The first is to improve general work readiness. The other is to provide first-hand experience of the building trades to members of a generation more accustomed to pounding a keyboard than pounding nails. An experienced building trades worker supervises construction details, while a second mentor supports teamwork, attendance and other "soft" skills.
For Chang and Xiong, now juniors at Johnson High School, UnderConstruction was their first summer job. King, a student at St. Paul College, had worked in child care and maintenance, but had "zero work experience in construction." While Chang and Xiong are both "hands-on" types -- Chang took wood shop and Xiong says he's always the one who asks, "Can I assemble that?" when his parents buy a new desk -- they also acknowledge that in a technology-driven age, they and their peers don't have much experience with construction techniques.
In addition to the physical side of the job, King said there was blueprint reading ("although for a garage it was pretty simple") and math, converting feet to inches and working in fractions. Participants also earned an OSHA 10 certification, reflecting the program's emphasis on working safely.
Xiong and Chang both plan to sign up for UnderConstruction again next year, and they would recommend it to others. "There's lots of learning, but it's really fun," Chang said.
What's the most important thing you learned on the job?
Chang: Teamwork and communication.
Xiong: Communication.
