Like to Work Outdoors?
Your Path to a Career in Construction

If you’re a high school graduate and like to work outdoors, this could be the chance of a lifetime for you to enter the field of construction and follow your path to a successful career.

Job opportunities for carpenters are expected to be plentiful due to both new homes being built as well as remodeling and home building replacement needs throughout our area. Thousands of job openings should become available each year. The average annual salary for carpenters, based on the Wall Street Journal Job Almanac of 1996, ranges from $24,000 to $55,000. Carpentry was the largest construction trade in 1998 with 1.1 million jobs held.

With a thorough training program that includes not only class work but on-the-job training as well, students are prepared for work in the rough carpentry framing category and also for other related fields such as drywall installation, poured concrete wall construction, roofing, and trim carpentry. All of these trades require a knowledge of the skills a “rough framing” carpenter possesses.

In addition, when training is conducted on actual building sites, students also gain a working knowledge of the various steps involved in the way homes are constructed from the basement wall to the finished product. “I’ve learned how to build a house from a hole in the ground all the way up to the roofing system,” says Kevin Jablonski, who completed a Carpenter Framer Training Program. Another student says she learned “Everything from reading a tape measure to making cuts, building stairs, and understanding blueprints.”

Since students who are trained on-site are involved with the entire construction process, many carpenters go on to become construction supervisors. Other carpenters go on to become owners of their own building companies.

A typical training course would cover the following: Use of Hand and Power Tools; Construction Materials; Fastening Systems; Measuring and Layout; Blueprint Reading; Floor Framing; Wall Framing; Ceiling Framing; Trussed Roof Framing; Gable and Shed Roofs; Hip Roof Framing; Intersecting Roofs; Exterior Doors and Windows; Stairways; and Drywall.

All of this gives the carpenter framer numerous opportunities to achieve the best job opportunities available in Home-Building, the world’s largest industry.

Editorial provided by Dan MacLeish, Sr, a third generation builder and president of MacLeish Building, Inc. in Troy, Michigan. He is also president of the Building Industry Association of Southeastern Michigan.