A trade school associated with the Home Builders Association of Lexington officially opens Monday. About 28 students will participate in heating, ventilation, air conditioning or carpentry classes at the Building Institute of Central Kentucky.
Todd Johnson with is the Lexington Home Builders Association. "During the last downturn and the great recession we're hopefully coming out of right now, we saw a lot of our skilled trade folks leave the industry. They haven't come back like they normally do after a recession and we've got a pretty good void in skilled trades for the residential and light commercial construction industries here in central Kentucky," said Johnson.
Johnson says the hands-on training program involves night classes, twice a week, for two years. He anticipates 60 percent of institute participants will be recent high school graduates with the rest already working in construction, but not fully trained.
Bruce Maybriar is Professional Development Director for Lexington's Home Builders Association. Maybriar says the new trade school is not in direct competition with the Bluegrass Community and Technical College System. "We're not degree based. When the students leave our program after two years, they will not have an associate's degree or bachelor's degree. They'll have a license or certificate to work in the trade field, so we're not competing with BCTCS," said Maybriar.
Johnson, meanwhile, says most of the instruction will occur in the Building Institute lab in Lexington. There are plans to include plumbing classes next fall.?
