There are so many good things to say about The Carpenter’s Training Facility in Philadelphia that Theresa and I recently toured during a day of skills competition.
What the students learn
Easily the best equipped facility for training and education in how malls, wind turbines, buildings, waste management plants that civilization needs get there, it is wall-to-wall welders, power tools, a dive tank, unbelievably competent and devoted staff, history, and devotion to the woman or man standing beside you.
At the training facility–which is (A) free, (B) you attend while you’re working, and ( C ) I’ll reiterate awesome–there is a life plan, a true brother and sisterhood, and a career. Not just a job in construction working for peanuts. And, I dare say, adventure.
What the students earn
There’s also money.
“Our kids walk out of here and into the middle class”, says Director Bob Landy. It’s not a sales pitch. He himself did the very same thing 30-years ago and states with a gleam in his eye that he has a pretty nice life.
They also walk out of there certified in everything from OSHA 30 to First Aid to earning an Associate’s Degree.
Free.
Every student we met either looked us in the eye, held a door, smiled or was otherwise respectful and that goes into their work. “Our carpenters don’t get paid to look for tools or waste time. They paid to produce and that’s what we teach them to do,” says Landry.
Amen, brother. That’s the job. That’s how you succeed in this game.
About the facility
The facility is a couple of buildings one hardly knows is there. But inside is everything from a tool corral that’s SWAT Team ready to a dive tank that is the regional hub for training underwater welding. Somebody’s gotta build those wind turbines. And brand new mass timber buildings.
At the Training Facility, the word “carpenter” applies to various trades that one might not equate with framing walls, cutting rafters or what I do every day, building decks. It’s a moniker for the long tail of history that culminates in the Training Facility. Let’s take the Millwrights.
Vastly over simplifying, Millwrights set heavy pieces of equipment, machines that have to work with both precision and astounding accuracy. (Those words are used interchangeably but they mean vastly different things, I digress). Think airport baggage handling systems. Think Amazon warehouse…everything in there. Think the machines that take what we flush down the toilet and never think about again. Somewhere in that chain of events that makes civilization possible, millwrights are there. They’re under the Carpenters’ aegis because at one time all their gear was made of wood.
The Facility also trains carpenters in a more traditional sense. Office buildings, bridges, interior framing and drywall, flooring–-artists, by the way, sure, they can lay a mile of tile, but world class wood inlay is de rigueur–-come from somewhere. And they need to be done on a massive scale by smart, honest people.
Why I like The Carpenter’s Training Facility
Part of why I’m writing this is because The Carpenters is union life and union life, traditionally–again, Landy–is almost family. Aunts, uncles, brothers, cousins.
But Landy has a bigger vision.
Take Priscilla, who was framing a steel stud room and also had to pass a tough math test that would enable her and the other framers to figure the ellipse door opening. Young, driven, and along with the jacked-up dudes one might expect to be working there (and they were) Landy confided in us that he wanted nothing but success for her and everyone else competing in during the Open House day of competition.
“We’re a brotherhood and sisterhood.”
For those in the Philly area who are interested in a career in the trades, check out The Carpenter’s Training Facility.
