A Wood County Technical Center student pushes a wheelbarrow during an outdoor activity at the West Virginia Appalachian Construction Craft Laborers' Training Center Friday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

MINERAL WELLS – Over 150 students from across West Virginia visited the WV Appalachian Construction Craft Laborers’ Training Center in Mineral Wells to learn more about the center’s apprenticeship program this week.

Hosted by the West Virginia Building and Construction Trades, the event also took place during National Apprenticeship Week slated from April 26-May 2.

On Friday, students from the Wood County Technical Center and Doddridge County High School visited the center and participated in hands-on activities put together by program leaders and coordination teams.

Students toured the facility and grounds before they had an opportunity to participate in different activities.

“It really gives the students an opportunity to learn about us laborers and the living wage that we’re able to get them and the benefits that we’re able to provide them and their families,” said CCL Apprenticeship Coordinator Eric King. “It’s been a great week and we’ve had a lot of participation throughout it.”

King has been in the position for five years and the apprenticeship program hands-on career fair has been occurring annually for four years. He said it’s been running smoothly and it’s been growing each year with more schools and students participating.

“I’m excited to keep it going,” he said. “I love being able to make a difference in somebody’s life for the positive.”

King said he works all across the state whether it’s at schools, prisons, or recovery centers to share information about opportunities available at CCL.

At CCL, high school graduating seniors can apply and complete the program by earning 4,000 hours of on-the-job training. Those hours are paid and based on the number of on-the-job hours they accumulate, so the longer they work, the higher their pay rate.

King said members of the program complete 400 hours of in-class training at the center. He said from there they’re sent off to work with contractors at construction sites and once the contract is complete, they return to the center for more work and the process repeats.

“They come to class for two weeks and then we send them straight to work and they work for five to six months, then we bring them back into class and we keep repeating that until they get their certificate,” he said.

Among the students in attendance Friday was Miles Johnson who was a junior at the Wood County Technical Center. He said he was part of the carpenter trade program at the technical center.

“It’s giving me real-world experience and it made me think about what I’m going to do in the future if I were to go down this road or if I’m going to do something else,” said Johnson.

Johnson was working at the station with his classmates on GPS tracking and coordination which could be applied on a construction site.

He said it was fun being able to spend time outside of the classroom and learn using real-world equipment and scenarios.

“This has really given me more hands-on experience,” said Johnson. “Like most people when they’re learning hands-on, they can allocate that to other things they usually couldn’t do.”

The training stations included GPS tracking and coordination finding, drone technical skills, crane operation, and transporting heavy concrete and dirt using construction site tools.

While potential future apprentices were participating in various training activities around the property, contractors were in the main facility for Contractor Appreciation Lunch.

Nearly 50 contractors from the state were in attendance to learn from Training Director Corey Dornon about potential apprentices.

“We have about 380 contractors that we train for and seven local unions through the states of West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and western Maryland,” said Dornon. “This is a phenomenal opportunity and we run these two events concurrently.”

Dornon said events like the one that occurred Friday shows the CCL’s recruiting efforts. He said it’s a great opportunity for contractors to see the beginning steps of the apprenticeship program and how students are introduced to it early on.

“They get to see how everything goes from equator one to recruiting an apprentice, developing an apprentice here … then those folks with training and skills go on to job sites and earn sustaining wages and a career, not just a job, for the next few seasons,” he said.

To learn more about the program visit www.wvccl.org/apprenticeship