MATC students benefit from contractors project

Pounding it in
Contractor’s renovation project gives MATC students real-life experience
A group of graduating carpentry students from Milwaukee Area Technical College has learned that sometimes the most valuable education comes from outside the classroom.
The students worked on converting a 1,500-square-foot house into a 7,000-square-foot office for the new headquarters of B&E General Contractors in Glendale. The students were onsite for approximately five weeks, from April 2 to May 8, said Mark Brick, president of B&E General Contractors.
“I thought it was a great experience,” said Ben Ruck, a student in the class. “In the classroom we had perfect conditions, no variables. With this we had to deal with the rain and wind.”
Brick has gotten several long-term employees from the carpentry program at MATC and is involved with the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), which provides scholarships for students. He thought it would be valuable to approach MATC to see if a hands-on project would work.
“It was an awesome experience,” Brick said. “In the first month we had 80º, 15º, hail, snow and 70-mile-per-hour winds. It let the students know the environment plays a role in building.”
Each year, the carpentry instructors at MATC try to do a project with their students at the end of the year as a finish to the one-year degree program, said George Slattery, a carpentry instructor at MATC.
“We usually put up garages for people in the city of Milwaukee; we want to get our students out into the field,” Slattery said. “We thought this would be a better experience.”
Brick’s contractors did most of the demolition and roof work, but the students were given the opportunity to do some framing, window installation, rough carpentry, interior wall building, and tying into already-existing walls and learning truss work, Slattery said.
“(These are) all main components of what you don’t get in a classroom,” Brick said. “(The students) were all pretty talented but very green.”
The students also learned valuable lessons about safety on the job site and why builders do the things they do, Brick said.
When many students go out into the field, they have to start at the bottom as “go-fer” and work their way up, and don’t always get the chance to show off their skills, Slattery said.
“Our students know how to put up walls, to build stairs, they just need to go out and do it,” he said.
The B&E carpenters made sure that the students were getting all they could out of the experience by slowing some of the work down to be sure that they were learning the skills, Slattery said.
Just working with the carpenters themselves was also a learning experience for the students.
“By working with real carpenters I got to learn their techniques and little tricks to doing things,” Ruck said.
The only possible downside to the project is that the students did not have the opportunity to see the work completed, Ruck said.
Of the 22 students who began the program, 19 completed it. Of those that finished, all but three insisted that the experience was a must, Brick said.
“I wish that there had been something like this when I went through the program,” Slattery said.
This is the first such project that MATC has done, and Slattery hopes it is not the last. While it may not become an official part of the curriculum, he believes that with the help of people such as Brick and NARI, other opportunities will present themselves.
“We build walls in the shop, but we have to tear those down because of space (issues),” Slattery said. “These walls are going to stay up. The students get a lot more satisfaction out of this.”
B&E General Contractors also benefited from the collaboration: Brick hired four of the students as full-time carpenters.
“The project was definitely a success in more than one way,” Brick said. “The knowledge we shared has given them a confidence boost in their ability and in themselves.”
July 20, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee