[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Rich Cormier and I teach electrical. Highlights of the shop are students get a good foundation for doing all types of electrical work from residential working in people's homes to commercial working in office buildings, fire alarms.
[SPEAKER_01]: My favorite aspect of the shop is how it's constantly, like, you can do different things. Like, I'm on pipe right now, but I, like, had to do other, like, types of wire and other, like, things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: A student can get a job as a licensed electrician if they work for a few years afterwards. They can get into the electrical union, which is pretty well-paying, or they can go with a non-union company, which is equally as well-paying, and the students get great experiences either way.
[SPEAKER_02]: What interested me in this shop was my dad is actually a plumber so he's already in the trades. My cousin does cars so I said let me do electrical. It doesn't look boring either and it makes good money. I wanted to be in the shop because it's something I've wanted to do since I was a little kid.
[SPEAKER_00]: So to become an electrician, you've got to continue on for three more years of evening school. There's a requirement with the state that you have to have 600 hours of theory and 8,000 hours of work time with the tools. In here, they gain about 150 hours of the theory time, and they gain about 2,000 hours of the work time. So a student who comes to the vocational school can get their electrical license three years after leaving, whereas if you left the high school, it would take you four years.
[SPEAKER_03]: My favorite project is probably the one I'm working on right now, my last MC job, which is like you just create your own job and you do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They learn how to install wires, outlets and switches. They learn how to use tools properly. They learn a lot about safety, how to properly climb a ladder, how to work on heights, how to work in dangerous areas and how to protect themselves with PPE. So a lot of those are the skills that they will learn here.
[SPEAKER_04]: My favorite aspect of the shop is definitely going out around the school and doing work. And my favorite project that I've done is installing the fans and construction.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in our shop, the students work on their own individual projects. Each student has their own workstation that they do their projects. We give them a project, they build it. In addition to that, juniors and seniors, where they're on the A week and B week schedule, we do a lot of work around the school. In the past, we've built the robotics and engineering shop from the ground up, along with carpentry and with construction and craft laborers. We have built, right now they're over in cosmetology, installing paddle fans. We've done that down in construction and craft laborers. So we do a lot of jobs around the school that gives them experience that is actual real work that's getting done, and something they get to show their kids and grandkids when they come back in years to come. So I am a 1975 graduate of this program. I'm very proud to come back here and teach. And I'm very excited when I send students out to work. That is like my biggest bit of excitement that I get out of here. That I take a student who came in as a freshman, not really knowing what electrical was, and then they become a senior and they go out to work. And they're out one week working and then the next week they're back doing their academics. And when the day that they get those jobs, nothing makes me more excited than that. because I feel like that's a success. The student has come from, they've really learned what they had to learn. They get a job, they keep the job. The day after graduation, they're already working. Whereas their friends have to go to college for four more years, have no idea what they're going to do in the future. Our kids are leaving here with a career all set to go.