ASIAN CARPENTRY: Program provides skills and hope

BY CODY COTULLA
Contributing Writer

Students TK Hu learn building skills. PHOTOS COURTESY CARMEN HO

In a Sept. 24 graduation ceremony at Evans campus, 18 students who completed the Asian Carpentry Program received their certificates and, more importantly, earned the right to join the carpenters’ union as apprentice carpenters.

“Becoming an apprentice in any of the skilled trades is really a good thing to do. These are high skill, high wage jobs,” said Phyllis McGuire, dean of the Evans campus. 

Since the program began in February 2003, 70 to 80 percent of graduates from the program’s three previous sessions have found work as carpenters, according to Carmen Ho of Charity Cultural Services Center, a non-profit organization. Charity Cultural Services Center developed the program in partnership with City College and the Carpenters Local 22 union.

During the 12-week program, students complete three Trade Skills courses: Introduction to the Construction Trades, Carpentry Framing, and Exterior and Interior Finishes.

Students in other construction classes spend 6 to 12 hours a week at school, but students in the Asian Carpentry Program spend 35 or more hours a week at school, according to McGuire.

For the course final, students demonstrate the skills they’ve learned by building a small house. Working in groups of four or five people, they do the framing, put up the roof, install the doors and windows, and put up the sheetrock. It takes them two days to finish, Ho said.

In addition to carpentry skills, students also learn about immigrant workers’ rights from the Labor Studies department. They also improve their English skills by taking Vocational English as a Second Language for Construction Workers.

Ho, who initiated the program, said part of the reason she wanted to partner with City College was because City College had the ESL and Labor Studies departments to round out the program.

The goal of the program is “to help the people who really want work, to give them the hard skills and the life skills too,” Ho said.

Funding for the program came from the Mayor’s Office of Community Devel-opment, the Depart-ment of Human Services, and the San Francisco Foundation. “A lot of foundations want to focus on underrepresented and at-risk populations in the area of workforce and economic development,” McGuire said.

The funds pay for the instruction, supplies used during the course, tools and other equipment. At the end of the program the students get to keep their carpentry belts and other equipment.

“These are at-risk individuals, so this is giving them a leg up,” McGuire said.

A portion of the funds also goes to the staff at Charity Cultural Services Center, which does the assessment to determine which students come into the program.

For the assessment, applicants are interviewed and given a test to determine their English and math abilities. Applicants receive points for other factors, such as prior construction experience, classes taken at City College, or if they receive public assistance. Finally, the top 20 applicants are selected for the program based on their test scores and points for additional factors.

They look for people who might be right for the program in all immigrant communities in San Francisco, Ho said.

For the upcoming session, which begins January 3, 2005, there are students from South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Vietnam, and China. Men outnumber women in the program, 16 to four.

Darren Wong, who came to San Francisco from Hong Kong in 1991, previously worked as a sushi chef for five years. Tired of working at restaurants and wanting to spend more time at home with his family, Wong heard about the Asian Carpentry program from a friend. “I knew it was what I needed to start a new career,” Wong said.