Career & Technology Education

 

 

 

 

Frederick Career and Technology Masonry students and their guests, along with their instructor, John Clark, attended the April 2006 PMA meeting.  The masonry students were recognized for their outstanding work this year. 

 

                              

                              

 

Students were presented with an award, their first trowel (pictured above) for their participation in the Builder's Olympics at the Home Show at the Frederick Fairgrounds in March 2006 (pictured below).

 

  

       

The Professional Masonry Association supports the Career & Technology Center in Frederick County, Maryland. It is our goal as PMA members to assist Mr. Clark and the Masonry program any way possible to promote, educate, and employ any available student. We donate our time, and work side by side with the masonry students within the lab setting and out on the job-site at the student built house. Not only do the mason contractors of our association contribute time; the masonry suppliers of our organization donate their time and materials too. Materials such as block, brick, sand, masonry mortar, tools, and equipment are donated freely. We realize that today’s Masonry students are the future of our businesses; therefore, we are educating today’s students for tomorrow’s future.

Frederick County Career & Technology Center is located at 7922 Opossumtown Pike in the heart of Frederick, Maryland. The Masonry Instructor at the Career Tech. is John Clark. Mr. Clark has 16 years of teaching experience, 10 years he taught in Garrett Co., Maryland and 6 years in Frederick Co., Maryland. The Masonry program is a two-year program, with an optional third year. The third year is for advance masonry studies or work-study with a local contractor.

The first 9 weeks of the school year, students work in the lab setting to experience, learn, practice, and master skills needed out on the job-site. Students learn the basic masonry skills of tools, materials, procedures and technology of the trade. Students are given classroom instructions and laboratory demonstrations that will help them to develop basic skills. Student’s projects will vary in complexity, from simple brick veneer to higher skilled levels jobs such as sidewalks, retaining wall, chimneys, and archways. After students have mastered the basic skills they will work on the Students Construction Trades Foundation House. This house is built out on site with other construction trades taught at the Career Tech. The Masonry students will lay the block foundation if needed, and lay the brick veneer on the house; pour the concrete for the basement and garage floors, driveway and sidewalks; set ceramic tile in the foyer and bathrooms of the home; and assist the Landscaping program with their hardscape (stone, interlocking pavers etc.).

Members of the PMA work side by side with the masonry students while constructing the student built house. Masonry students learn practical hands-on application at the Career Tech., they also learn valuable job skills, proper techniques from experienced tradesmen, and old fashion, on the job training experience from the PMA members while working on the house. Students and members of the PMA give up their free time on Saturdays to work along side of each other. The house project allows easy transition between school and real career jobs.

     

(Pictured above:  PMA members working with students on house project at Motter Avenue in Frederick, MD on Saturday, May 20th, 2006.  This house project will continue through the 2006-2007 school year)

Not only do we work with the masonry students on the house project, but we also work with the students at the local Frederick County Builder Olympics contest in conjunction with the Builders Trade Show each spring. Each year we attend the annual CTC Open House in the fall. At the open house, parents and students are invited to come and watch their children at work. Members of the PMA are on hand to assist students with their demonstrations and answer questions concerning their child’s future as a mason. We are also involved with the local and state level Maryland Skills USA Masonry Contest as a chairman, judges, or laborers. We are involved with these extra-curricular activities because, we believe it helps build skills, confidence, and it gives an opportunity for the students to “show off their talents” and practical skills they have learned at the Career & Technology Center, through the guidance of Mr. Clark and the PMA Members.

The success of this organization is to educate and produce masons for the future. The average age of masons across the United States is rapidly rising. Less young people are interested in this trade. Ironically, the masonry business is booming and the demand for masons and laborers are at its all time high in Frederick County. Contractors are turning down jobs due to lack of manpower, and companies cannot grow due to the shortage of masons. The goal of the PMA is to increase the number of young bricklayers in our industry in the coming years. These young masons and masonry students from the Career & Technology Center are the future of our businesses!

 

Frederick Career and Technology Masonry students, their instructor, John Clark, and Frederick County Career and Technology Principal, Earl Miller, attended the April 2005 PMA meeting.  The masonry students were recognized for their outstanding work this year.  Students who participated in the Builder's Olympics at the Home Show at the Frederick Fairgrounds in March 2005, were presented with an award, their first trowel.