LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The number of shop classes have steadily declined in American schools over the years.
According to the American Enterprise Institute, between 1982 and 2013, the amount of credits earned by students taking those classes dropped by 27%.
Big factors in that shift include schools receiving less funding to build out metal and woodworking shops as well as career and technical education courses focusing on computer technology and communications jobs.
With jobs like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and builders possibly facing future shortages due to a lack of skilled workers, several local businesses are stepping in to help.
Helix Electric and the Gibson McGath Foundation have created a program to provide hands-on training to high school students in Henderson.
"There's trade schools out here, which is fantastic, but the shop class that introduces the students to what is possible has kind of disappeared or pulled out of most of the schools," said Jeff Gibson, the Co-Founder and CEO of JAG Development LLC. "So what we want to do is bring the shop class back to local high schools."
The program lasts for several weeks and students learn a variety of skills, starting from the basics.
"They know nothing about nothing. They don't know anything about tape measures or what the numbers on the tape measures mean or how to use a skill saw or what a skill saw is. We educate them on all the parameters of the basics," Gibson said. "From A to Z, they're going to walk through not understanding anything to finishing a home."
Logan Mount, a student at Lake Mead Christian Academy, says this program has inspired him to go on to be an electrician and that these types of classes are still important to local students.
"I've always wished we did have that [shop classes]," Mount explained. "Everything around us, someone had to put it together and build it. If you have time to try something out, do it. You never know if you'll like it or not."
Gibson says the students' final project at the end of the course is to help build a tiny home.
According to Helix Electric, every tiny home that is built supports Southern Nevada's unsheltered and veteran populations.
For Teyana Brown, another student at Lake Mead Christian Academy, seeing their hard work go to a deserving family makes the program even more worthwhile.
"It's cool. I was thinking that something that I built is going to benefit someone else, that I helped build," Brown said. "It's just cool to have your mark all over the valley, just helping people out and serving."
And for Chris McKimmey, a superintendent and instructor from Helix Electric, it's rewarding to see the students put their knowledge into action and possibly join their industry in the future.
"The biggest lesson for me, I think, would be, if you could call them lessons, is interacting with the kids, the young adults and seeing how they react back and their level of excitement," McKimmey said. "They're in the fresh, beginning stages of what they want to do for their career. To be able to be a part of that is exciting."
