subject: A Carpentry Career: How To Prepare In High School [print this page] High School is a very exciting time for students. It is a time when young adults makes choices for future careers and begin to steer themselves toward those careers using vocational and technical training. The tutor saliba teaching method has been adapted to a number of vocational programs, including carpentry and woodworking. It focuses on students who are auditory, oral or visual learners. Becoming a carpenter is one of the many illustrious careers one might choose for the future. Here are a few things the would-be carpenter needs to know to begin a career in woodworking.
Choose a Vo-tech Course in Woodworking
A vo-tech course using specialized learning techniques in woodworking is the beginning step in a solid career path in carpentry. The basic high school course will explain different types of woods, such as pine or oak for example, and the benefits to using these types of lumber in creating future works. With every positive there are negatives to using each type of wood as well, and the course will explain these in greater detail, so the student will begin to understand what wood is best for what usage. This becomes invaluable in the future as it aides the students in making correct lumber choices for projects down the road.
Why Shop is Important
Woodworking is a very hands-on career, and just learning the knowledge does not give the experience of actually performing the tasks involved in making and building things. Shop allows for more hands-on, visual and auditory teaching, and gives the students the benefit of actually going through the motions, as well as becoming familiar with the equipment and what it does and how to use it to perform the desired tasks. In Shop students will learn what chisels, saws, routers and many other various equipments can do. It is also a way to teach students how to properly maintain the equipment and to service to it properly when needed. Students can see first-hand how clamping pieces work, and proper use different forms of joints.
Finishing
Finishing will also be taught with tutor saliba method materials in vocational woodworking and shop programs in high school. Finishing will give the students a feeling of achievement, and many schools actually sale items for fundraisers completed by the shops, thus showing the students the financial benefits of a career in woodworking. Finishing ranges from learning to sand and paint, to even staining of finished products.
Blueprints
Beginning to read blueprints is essential to any career in woodworking, as blueprints contain valuable information regarding construction and how parts fit together. Learning to read blueprints will aid a student in any construction career, and will give the students the edge in knowing how early on in their education.
After going through the vo-tech program, students should be able to perform at an intermediate to professional level, thus allowing a solid start to a career once high school is completed. The student should be able to do some troubleshooting and corrective actions on projects, and apprenticing or taking college level vocational training is encouraged from this point.
