ACE frames training in trade industries

New school teaches soft skills to hard hats

By Rob Cullivan

The Gresham Outlook, Sep 5, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

JIM CLARK / Gresham Outlook

ACE Academy students try out their new computers on the first day of class under the watchful eye of their English teacher Erin Butler, right, in red pants.

Michael Taylor, director of the newly opened Architecture, Construction & Engineering, or ACE, Academy in northeast Portland knows exactly what his students want.

“For me to explain to you how to build a high-rise won’t make sense to you, but I can show you in 10 minutes,” he says.

The school is designed for the type of student who thrives in a hands-on learning environment, he adds, noting the 144 high school seniors and juniors won’t just be sitting in classrooms but will be taking several field trips to work sites in the Portland metro area.

Centennial, Gresham-Barlow, Parkrose, Sandy and Reynolds school districts are operating ACE in partnership with the Oregon Building Congress. Students attending ACE will split their time between ACE and their home high schools. The new students range from some who already have worked at the entry level in their chosen field to those “who have never seen a hammer or screwdriver,” Taylor says.

He notes that ACE is designed to offer students a chance at skilled trades apprenticeships in the carpentry, electrical and sheet metal industries as well as earn credits that can be used at colleges offering construction, architecture and engineering degrees.

Both Taylor and Karen Natzel, the school’s marketing coordinator, say ACE will help fill a vital need for trained workers. For example, Taylor says many people enter the skilled trades in their late 20s and have to relearn such subjects as math. In addition to teaching students the nuts and bolts of trade industries, ACE offers classes in math, English and science.

Taylor notes that ACE also will teach the students “soft skills,” such as getting to work on time, staying on task and communicating with folks who work in other fields and with clients.

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