Airdrie’s Building Futures gives Grade 10 students hands on construction experience

Through the Building Futures program, an Airdrie homebuilder gives high school students a chance to be part of a construction project, start to finish.

More than 30 Grade 10 students in Airdrie are enrolled in McKee Homes’ Building Futures program where they work side-by-side with professional trades people to build two houses from the ground up in one school year.

Sheri McAllister, Building Futures manager and McKee Homes construction superintendent, said this is the program’s 13th year and it starts when the students are in grade nine and have to apply. The chosen students start on site at the start of the school year in September.

“When they arrive in the fall we have one house framed so they can start at mechanical rough-ins with the plumbers specifically,” she said. “Then the second house, they start right from the ground so they survey it, they dig it, they crib it all the way through right to the very end and we complete both homes within the Grade 10 year.”

Chinook Winds Court

The two homes are located in Chinook Winds Court in Airdrie. The weather in the second week of January feels closer to spring-like temperatures but the students are on site no matter what it’s like outside.

“We have a cut off about -15,” she said. “Once the tools don’t want to work, we don’t want to work either so then we can focus on our schoolwork in the garage or special projects, there’s always something to do.”

And academics aren’t forgotten on the job site. The garages from the homes have been turned into an insulated classroom.

“Part of the contingency of going on site is that you’re keeping up with your academics,” said McAllister. “If you’re falling behind, you have to advocate for yourself to catch up.”

From participant to instructor

In 2021, Jaydon Stojke was a 15-year-old in the program. Now he’s a second year apprentice plumber and back as an instructor.

“It’s awesome. I mean, I feel like futures definitely gave me a big jumpstart, it’s actually how I landed this job plumbing,” he said. “Today they’re running a humidifier line and then I had them running fridge line and a couple other water lines.”

McAllister said it’s a benefit when graduates of the program come back to teach.

“We’ve had many young guys come back and ladies come back from the program who are now working with other trades because they’re so close in age,” she said. “They connect in a different way than someone my age would connect with them so it’s really special, that synchronicity that starts to happen.”

Dale Martin, Ideal Insulation is working with a group of students to insulate one of the homes. He says it will take a little over a day to get it all done.

“The goal is well to show the kids the proper way to do the installation, how it should be in so they understand the engineering of it, what’s keeping the cold from meeting warm,” he said. “I wish I did (have a program like this when I was young), I would have loved it, I think it’s fantastic for the kids to learn every single trade as you go.”

Sadie Goulden, 15, grew up fixing things around the house with her dad and likes the program but says there’s still school work to do.

“We do take our academic stuff really seriously here,” she said. “So if you’re not catching up to your classes, you’re not allowed to go work on site.”

Easton Border, 15, says he’s enjoying learning about how to build a home.

“I didn’t really know about too much of the trades or what I wanted to do when I’m older,” he said. “I thought this would be a great program to just get in and figure out what I want to do when I’m out of high school and I really like it.”

Learn more about the program here: https://www.mckeehomes.com/building-futures/