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The Build Smart Institute, scheduled to open this summer, has a great Plan B, should viral matters intervene.
Like so many Americans, Rob Leonard has had to reconfigure his “best laid plans” to accommodate the threat of COVID-19. But the technological component of the Build Smart Institute’s educational program made the adjustment fluid and relatively simple.
Leonard, the safety and education director at F&S Building Innovations in Roanoke, has been working for more than a year to pull off the Institute’s first Summer Enrichment Program, a classroom for kids 11-15 that teaches construction skills.
The schedule calls for the first three-week session June 8-26 and the second July 13-31. The virus has put the schedule on shaky ground for the physical part of the program, but there’s a solid backup plan. The Institute has a computer component that is 20% of the program—the “knowledge” portion—that can be taught remotely, computer to computer.
“They can take the rest of their classes later,” Leonard emphasizes.
Regardless of how the schedule works out, the Build Smart Institute is seeking to establish itself as an educational alternative not only for young kids, but also for high school students and adults. Construction, says Leonard, has fallen upon hard times, at least partly because of its image.
“It is a respectable career where you can make a good living,” says Leonard.
And he means a good living right out of high school, where workers often start at between $40,000 and $70,000 a year.
“I always wanted to be in construction despite the stigma,” he says.
And he has been involved for 40 years. As safety and education director at F&S, which wanted to focus on educating the next generation of workers, he spent a year designing the program and working on safety education for construction professionals.
He found “there is a near zero interest in construction in grades 0 to 7. Technical education is over-burdened and apprentice programs lack resources and need companies to hire their graduates.”
Leonard designed the school around a 12,000-square-foot facility F&S leases in the Gainsboro section of Roanoke and the summer classes will concentrate on four units: safety, construction math, construction means (tools) and employability.
Classes will each have 15 students and, at this moment, two teachers. Students will go to school eight hours a day for three weeks and will graduate after their second three-week session with several construction education certificates, including the Build Smart Institute’s own.
Classes are being planned for high school students and for adults who want to become work-ready for the industry, which is in need of workers top to bottom, Leonard insists.
Tuition for the classes is $1,050 for the first three-week session, which runs 8 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays with lunch and snacks provided.
Email the Build Smart Institute at info@buildsmartinstitute.com or call 540-613-2102.
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