KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Andrew Teater comes to life when he uses his hands.
“Anything with woodworking, anything that’s hands-on, I really enjoy,” the Liberty High School senior said.
Since middle school, he’s taken shop classes and learned to build cabinets, entertainment centers and art from wood. His entertainment center with intricate waves carved into the wood won first place at a competition Saturday to expose students like him to the skilled trades.
“I’m real happy with how it turned out,” Teater said, before even learning how he placed.
The Homebuilders Association of Greater Kansas City hosts the“KC Manufacturing and Design Expo,” nicknamed KC MADE, every year. The expo carried more weight in 2021. Low inventory in the housing market, plus supply and labor shortages in the homebuilding industry, have prompted a rise in new home prices. Leaders from the homebuilders association said connecting students with career opportunities in the skilled trades is one way to fill the current shortage.
“We try to at least give them [students] some other alternatives [to traditional four-year degrees],” Drake Vidrine, the homebuilders association’s workforce development committee chair, said. “I always joke with them, it’s a hole-to-shovel ratio. School debt can create a very large hole; and a lot of these kids come out with a pretty small shovel. It takes a long time to get rid of that debt. This way, these guys can have no hole, or a small hole, and sometimes those shovels are bigger than people might expect.”
Jeff Huff discovered later in life the size of shovel, knowing a skilled trade can provide. After decades in the corporate world, he opened KC Furnishing Co. and his wife runs Restoration Emporium next door. The Huffs hosted the expo and Jeff Huff was a judge in the competition.
“I really want people to know, the younger generation that’s coming up, if they can work with their hands and they want to work with their hands, they’ll have a job the rest of their life,” Jeff Huff said. “And it’s satisfying. You can take a pile of sticks and end up with a house or end up with furniture. You can make something people are going to be proud of.”
Teater is proud of what he created and looks forward to working as a skilled craftsman and artist after high school.
“Definitely try to pursue your dreams and go and do something like that," he said. "It’s a good skill to have and there’s always going to be profit for it and there’s always going to be purpose for it."
The Homebuilders Association of Greater Kansas City extended the deadline for its scholarship program to April 16. It offers traditional scholarships to pay for schooling, but also career-ready scholarships to pay for equipment so a student can work immediately. More information about the application process is on the organization’s website.
Huff and Vidrine helped 41 Action News create a Rebound Rundown for anyone interested in learning a trade:
- Pick a trade you find interesting.
- Seek openings at companies with a reputation for training new employees.
- Embrace technology. Many trades now rely on computers and software, not just hammers and nails.
- Look for scholarships and apprenticeships with unions.
- Good people skills make you more hire-able. Just because you work with your hands, doesn’t mean you don’t need interpersonal skills.
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