Power tools replace pens, paper at this SF high-school internship

Woodwork and auto-shop classes waned in popularity when most millennials were in high school, but shop class isn’t dead in San Francisco public schools. In fact, research shows that Generation Z students are more interested in skilled-labor trades than their predecessors.

Current students and recent high-school graduates are flocking to vocational schools more than their predecessors, so much so that Generation Z has been nicknamed “the Toolbelt Generation” for its willingness to embrace trades-job training over traditional four-year colleges.

Enrollment in construction, culinary, and mechanic trades programs at two-year institutions increased 8.1%, 7.7%, and 14.2%, respectively, from spring 2023 to 2024, according to estimates from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. San Francisco public-school students have opportunities to explore those trades through various school-year programs and summer internships, and local teachers here have noticed interest grow over the years.

The career pathways offered at John O’Connell Technical High School, for instance, include Entrepreneurship and Culinary Arts, and Construction and Environmental Technology. The school is also offering a summer internship, where 15 students gain hands-on experience while earning college credit and a $600 stipend, as well as the priceless ability to say they created something from scratch.

“I’m really interested in art as a hobby, in creating things, so construction really caught my eye,” said Gylli Palacio, a rising junior at John O’Connell Technical High School who told The Examiner she is interested in exploring a career in construction. “I love working with my hands.”

Students learn the basics — like how to identify and properly use tools in a framer’s toolkit, measure and cut two-by-fours, and apply roofing materials, among other skills. Then, they put those skills to practice, building anything from tiny homes to sheds.

Palacio on Friday added a fresh coat of paint to a wooden structure that will shed recycling, compost and trash bins on San Francisco Unified School District campuses. The internship will wrap up July 19, and the sheds will be placed on school sites next academic year.

“It’s really cool to finish something and say, ‘Hey, I made that,’” Palacio said.

Chris Wood, who has taught construction courses at the high school for over 12 years, said more students are coming into his classes who are “genuinely interested” in a career in construction.

The construction pathway serves as a direct entry into Local 22, the San Francisco carpenters union, and those union jobs “offer great pay and benefits,” Wood said.

“The students are all curious about how much you can make, and are all impressed with union-scale pay in San Francisco, certainly,” he said.

Construction is one of the fastest-growing industries that continues to see an unprecedented demand for skilled employees, and current job trends indicate that a construction job or other skilled-labor job is secure, whereas non-labor industries face unprecedented layoffs. As Bay Area tech companies and venture-backed startups lay off workers en masse, the demand for contractors is increasing.

Estee Cohen, founder of the independent recruiting firm California Job Shop, told The Examiner that skilled-labor jobs “will always be in demand.”

“Construction is always growing. There's always something to build,” she said. “And if you're looking for a trade that's not going to be replaced with a computer, construction is it.”

That increases the value of vocational education, Cohen added, as well as technical career pathways in high school.

“We used to encourage kids, 10 years ago, to become engineers,” she said. “Everybody became an engineer, and now they're being laid off in masses.”

But the demand for craftsmen and trades workers is palpable locally. Nick Rothman, City College Trade Skills Department Chair, said he gets emails from employers “every day” looking for graduates.

“My colleagues in post-secondary education are just kind of blown away by that. They say, ‘Wait, the recruiters come to your campus?’ That’s just not as common [in other departments],” he said.

Wood said that some of his students will go on to careers in construction, but not all. Many still go on to pursue bachelor’s degrees in the sciences or liberal arts, he said, “and we of course encourage that.”

Cohen said there is value in taking shop class, whether it be an auto mechanics course at George Washington High School or a construction internship at John O’Connell, regardless of your career path. Hard labor skills learned there are applicable in the real world, she said.

“Mastering those skills, that’s something nobody can take away from you,” Cohen said.

While Gen Z’s growing interest in labor work is undeniable, Wood said he can’t say for sure why students are more interested in construction than before. He said it’s most likely because outreach to middle-school students has increased over the years. When middle-school students attend an open house at the high school, he said, “they get to use a hammer, they get to paint something.”

In other words, they get the rare opportunity to work with their hands — and power tools and paint rollers — rather than pens and paper. For students who learn and study mainly stationary in desks, it’s a novelty and an opportunity to explore alternatives in higher education.

“They don’t get that kind of, tangible learning opportunity in history or math class that you would in a [shop class],” Wood said.