Electrical, plumbing and construction opportunities are frequently possible with non-profit groups that build homes or provide services to low-income families. Volunteer projects provide the experience to help the student determine what he likes and does not like and to build skills. Viewing these volunteer experiences as potential job training opportunities may be a means of expanding a resume.
Automotive entry level positions may be in detailing and cleaning vehicles or in some maintenance operations. However, it may be best to set up job training opportunities as short-term projects to assess student capacity and interest. The design of school-based or community projects that allow the student to demonstrate and practice his skills can add a line to the resume. Various non-profit corporations may have vehicles donated as gifts. The opportunity to volunteer in providing maintenance on donated vehicles may be worth pursuing for some.
Electrical & Construction Field:
- Testing circuits and equipment for current
- Replacing switches, outlets, sockets, fixtures, etc.
- Running wire through walls, crawl spaces, attics
- Using hand tools (wire reels, wire strippers, cable cutters, etc.) for repairs
- Using power tools (staple gun, drills, saws, etc.) for construction/repairs
- Using a blueprint to guide electrical construction
- Moving & covering furniture and preparing for paint
- Cleaning surfaces for painting (indoors [scrape and wash] and outdoors [power wash])
- Using caulk, plaster or putty to patch holes or cracks
- Applying primer, sealer, paint using spray guns, brushes, rollers, and texturing tools
- Cleaning painting equipment
- Loading & unloading construction materials
- Operating power equipment (blowtorch, jack hammer, saws, drills, grinders, etc.)
- Operating forklift
- Mixing, pouring and leveling concrete
- Using measuring and hand tools for construction
- Welding, grinding, metalwork
- Installing pipes, faucets, sinks and fixtures
- Cutting pipe, creating joint fittings
- Installing sinks
- Installing countertops
Automotive Mechanical Field:
- Removing and replacing tires
- Oil changes, replacing filters, fluid levels, brake pads – general maintenance
- Detailing, cleaning and polishing inside and outside
- Advanced maintenance – removing, repairing, and replacing various components
- Operating lift, diagnostic equipment, interpreting diagnostic data
Using hand tools and power tools
Because each environment and each job is so different, our approach here is to provide you with questions and reminders in a sequential process that are intended to support your analysis of and intervention for the specific skills in a specific position. From your review of this process and the examples, it is hoped that you can design a comparable process for other electrical, plumbing, construction or automotive options. The combination of volunteer opportunities, club, school, church or non-profit projects and entry level job training and job positions can prove strong in refining the student’s goals and his post-school outcomes.
As noted previously, building a career takes a long time for some. Many students leave high school with the skills to handle only very controlled volunteer or work settings. Ten years later, an individual may be working a job as a mechanic or as an electrician’s assistant. Build the foundation of a career one step at a time.
Which of the Career Planning Self-Assessments should you present based on your knowledge of the student? Pick and choose questions according to your knowledge of the student! You have options of 1) Trade and Industrial Interests and 2) Trade and Industrial Strengths. Although these are not assessments with a lot of questions, you are encouraged to select questions that fit the student and may provide useful information. Individualize what you present to the student. Within Retail Operations, you have potentially relevant questions within 1)
Retail Marketing Interests: Retail Sales and 2) Retail Marketing Strengths: Retail Sales. As noted, you must use your knowledge of the student to select the sets of questions that are most likely to be relevant to the student’s interests and to the available options in the community. How can you break them down to prevent the student from being overwhelmed? Consider cutting and pasting your own individualized self-assessments for the student based on the number and direct relevance of questions to his preferences and abilities.
Using the student’s perceptions of his strengths and interests is an initial step toward finding valuable volunteer or work experience. The information derived from self-assessments will assist the priming process as you find potential opportunities for the student to practice his skills. Opportunities may exist through service project activities at school and in various community organizations. Short-term projects are an opportunity to experience the various aspects of a job and thus will affect the student’s self-assessment. Self-assessment derives from experience for the individual; analyzing experience is more effective than purely projective measures. Weighing the pros and cons of a job once you have done the job obviously improves judgment.
What is the balance of variation and routine in duties or tasks that will support long-term success for the student? Do some of the tasks engage the student’s interests? Will he find satisfaction in the completion of at least some of the duties?
Trade and Industrial Interests
Getting the Job Match
Choose a set of duties that are already safely within the student’s capacity, especially if this is a first job or a short-term project. The trade skills require a level of precision in production that is quite high. Moreover, the context within which one uses the trade skill changes constantly. One does not work in one home or under one car hood. Carefully assess if the conceptual understanding of the job tasks is too broad or general for the detailed thinking of the student. Trade skills require a problem solving approach that changes depending on the setting, the equipment, and the specific problem or task.
Aim at a job in which the student can quickly perform over 80% of job duties independently. This is true for service projects as well as job training experiences. This is the aim because Job-Keeping issues, or ‘soft skills,’ are often the major challenges that will require direct instruction and visual supports. For the 20% (or less) of job duties that are a challenge, make sure that the student has emerging or partial abilities. Can staff arrange a job training opportunity that provides experience removing and replacing tires at a tire store? Is the operation of balancing machinery handled by another mechanic so that the student is initially only involved in removing and replacing parts, cleaning and maintenance of the garage, and replenishing supplies needed in the site? If someone has to teach the student’s performance for longer than a few weeks, is this a good job match? Ongoing monitoring of concrete job skills and job-keeping behaviors will be necessary to assure quality and improvement. However, ongoing teaching of multiple skills in a work setting is not consistent with independent work performance.
In creating the job match, it is critical to consider the activity needs as well as the environmental needs of the student. Which tasks engage the student’s interests? Will he find satisfaction in the completion of certain duties? If so, how can these be emphasized?
Note that these job categories (electrical construction, building & plumbing construction and automotive maintenance) all require lots of movement and activity within a day’s work. Many of these job tasks involve lots of movement back and forth in possibly a large area. Whether removing a car battery, recharging it and replacing it, or running wire along a wall from the circuit breaker to various rooms in a house, the tasks involve lifting, moving back and forth, and carrying while using different tools. Putting the tools back in the proper location is a part of the task as well. Simply, the organizational demands on the student are significant in these jobs. You will need to think about how he will keep up with tools while in motion, how he will always have what he needs at various points in each task, and how he will know to put things back so that they are not lost.
Will the student flourish in an environment where he has several different tasks daily between which he can move (i.e., socket, fixture and outlet assemblies OR a consistent sequence of oil change, transmission fluid level check, brake level check, etc.)? Does he actually do well when faced with new or slightly different problems?
Retail settings in which the student can organize and display hardware and tools may appeal to the student. Look carefully at chores that will be consistent vs. those that will frequently change. Too many changing tasks may lead to job failure. Heavy lifting of materials can be structured to provide repetition that serves as aerobic exercise with a clear purpose.
It is often critical to not only observe the skill in that setting, but to also go through the steps of the job yourself and list the steps as a result of performing the task. Listing the steps of a task allows you to identify the potential trouble spots and to develop visual supports that will support student independence. Doing this before expecting the student to perform the skill or task will prevent student, supervisor and instructor frustration and potential failure.
The instructor may feel like she does not have time to do this. Not doing so leads to failed job sites. If your goal is positive post-school outcomes, find a way to at least observe the task being performed and make the task analysis before expecting the student to perform it.