Students show off their tool skills at Construction Rodeo

The sound of more than 70 students hammering nails, driving screws, and sawing plywood filled the Regional Skilled Trades Solution Center at Western Piedmont Community College last week, as each worked against a stopwatch and tried to earn a prize.

Western Piedmont (WPCC) hosted the annual Construction Rodeo on March 19, inviting construction and trade students from Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, and McDowell counties to test their skills and meet vendors in a series of hands-on activities meant to drive interest in the field.

Tony Rudisill, the construction teacher at Patton High School, said, “We do practice. It’s just getting the kids out and introducing them to all the stations that are gonna be here. … They’re excited. It’s always a fun day. We work it up as a competition.”

THE COMPETITION

In one room, students used oscillating tools to carve holes from wood panels, mounting them with electrical outlet boxes.

Elsewhere, competitors drilled as many screws into a panel as they could in 30 seconds. Each had to be flush or countersunk.

“We never had stuff like this when I was in school at all,” said Brad Camp, Burke County Board of Education member. “Whether it’s a career or you’re just doing it around your own home, it’s great skills.”

One corner of the building hosted blueprint reading exercises, where students had 7 minutes to study architectural blueprints and answer five questions, each worth two points.

“Students basically go through the different layers on the blueprint, then go ahead and discern different information that builders would need to pull from the blueprint. The impressive thing is that they’re high school kids reading these things,” said Bali Warner, who teaches mechanical engineering at WPCC and manned the activity tables.

FOR THE STUDENTS

For some students, the event goes past the competition to establish pathways for their future.

“The people I get to know here could really help me out later in life, all these vendors and stuff — just connections, really,” said Carter Wright, Maiden High School student and eventual third-place winner, as he moved around the room full of vendor tables.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in construction and extraction jobs is projected to grow faster than any other industry’s average from 2024 to 2034, with approximately 649,300 openings projected each year.

The jobs also pay well, with a median annual wage of $58,360 as of 2024 — nearly $9,000 higher than the average across all occupations.

“The trade industry is wide open because it’s an old industry as far as the people that are in it,” Rudisill said. “They’re retiring, so (students) can come straight out of high school, take classes at college and develop their skills even more; or go straight into the workforce and they’re able to have an impact immediately.”