The story below is a preview from our September/October 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
An affordable alternative to traditional higher education exists right here in the Roanoke Valley, thanks to F&S Building Innovations.
Courtesy of F&S Building
Editor's Note: Listen to our podcast episode featuring Alicia Smith and Michelle Ramaker from F&S Building Innovations as they share more about the Build Smart Institute, including what students will learn, how it helps local businesses and economy and so much more. Or, see the segment below!
The staff at F&S grappled for years with a shortage of skilled laborers in the area to respond to the region’s needs for electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and other types of construction workers. Determined to find a solution, they started their own trade school in 2020 to address the deficit.
This trade school, Build Smart Institute, offers courses that allow students a direct path to employment. It is a higher education facility, like any other college, but with tuition that is comparatively more affordable than a traditional four-year school. It also provides hands-on training in the field.
Vice President of F&S and President of Build Smart Institute, Alicia Smith, started working in construction part-time as a teenager. She has been involved in the industry for multiple decades since then.
Smith observes that demand for employees in construction does not vary over time as the demand in other industries does. This makes it a stable career option in a mercurial job market.
“Our society regularly sees technology sprout up and then quickly become obsolete in 5-10 years, which can make a career centered around that technology extremely successful…until it’s not,” Smith says. “However, construction? We will always need to build new homes, new offices, new community facilities — that will never change. Newer or more efficient methods or materials may emerge, but the industry will never become obsolete.”
The work students train to do at Build Smart Institute can also lead to a high level of job satisfaction. Wesley Cotner, the director of education at the Institute, describes the work as visually rewarding.
He says employees can experience a sense of achievement from driving up to an empty lot and leaving six months later with a family’s home standing there. Other students are proud of walking into obviously outdated hospitals, working for a time and leaving a facility that looks brand new when the job is done.
Thanks to the hard work of school officials in the region, the opportunity to pursue construction as a trade is now available for students as young as 14. Patrick Patterson, principal of Roanoke Catholic School, began to notice a decline in plumbers, electricians and other trade employees about 13 years ago. He needed to contract someone to fix an area of the school and struggled to do so. This labor shortage inspired him to present the idea of a trade school as part of the school’s graduation requirements last summer.
Courtesy of F&S Building
Build Smart Institute students get hands-on learning that provides valuable experience and insight into the industry.
Both students and parents were excited by the idea, and many elected to participate in the program. Junior Thomas Myers, of Roanoke Catholic School, recently completed the CORE Fundamentals of Construction course through Build Smart. In this course, he learned to do framing, electrical, plumbing, drywall, concrete and masonry work.
He has now moved into a carpentry course. He relishes the opportunity to engage in hands-on learning and may pursue a summer internship in construction heading into his senior year of high school.
Thomas explains that an engineering degree is his “ultimate goal.” Studying construction while he’s still in high school provides him with valuable experience that guides his career aspirations.
Patterson has made this opportunity accessible to students regardless of their socioeconomic status. He is proud that students do not have any additional out of pocket expenses to participate, except possibly work boots, if they’re not covered by other funding.
Patterson partnered with Roanoke City Schools and pursued Title IV funding to help defray the cost of the institute. Title IV funding is federal funding allocated to youth development activities, including trade schools.
In addition, Roanoke Catholic School credits back a portion of the tuition students pay when they attend Build Smart classes. Patterson believes this is fair since students are at Build Smart for part of their school day instead of using resources at the main school during that time.
Build Smart also provides professional development for local construction companies that already employ working professionals. Some of these include Branch, Varney, Service Contracting of VA, Lionberger and more than twenty others. Cotner describes these classes as both “needed” and “popular” because they allow people to move up within their field as they gain skill and experience.
Cotner says that newer employees receive professional development training to move from a crew leader position to a superintendent. Others with more experience move from superintendent to project manager. Cotner says these moves require big changes in job responsibilities, which is how Build Smart helps.
Want to learn more about Build Smart Institute? Check out the latest issue, now on newsstands, or see it for free in our digital guide linked below!
The story above is a preview from our September/October 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!