Wolf Creek Job Corps

Carpentry

 Carpentry student and instructor working on a house (All photos provided by courtesy of Job Corps center operators under contract to the US Department of Labor.)

Overview:: The Carpentry trade is offered at Wolf Creek Job Corps for students interested in gaining basic skills for an entry level carpenter's position. This is a pre-apprenticeship program which prepares students to compete for positions as a union carpenter's apprentice or other entry level carpentry jobs upon completion of the program.

In Level I students learn employability skills, general safety, math, trade terminology, hand tools, power tools, ladders and scaffolding, lumber identification, and fasteners.

In Level II, students who have completed Level I continue to build their knowledge of carpentry with employability skills, doors and windows, interior trim, footing forms, wall forms, column and pier forms, joints and sub-flooring, walls and partitions, rafters and trusses, metal studs, drywall, ceilings, regionally specific roof coverings, siding and exterior trim.

Instructors:The carpentry instructors are Bob Barber and Lonnie Davis.

Bob Barber was the first graduate of the Union Carpentry Program at Angel Job Corps Center in the early 1970's and achieved his journeyman rank in 1975. Bob began teaching at the Willamette Carpenters Training Center in Eugene, OR in 1976 where he taught off and on for several years as an apprenticeship instructor. In 1977 Bob began his long affiliation as an instructor with Job Corps. From 1982 to 1999 Bob served as the lead instructor at Wolf Creek Job Corps and has just recently returned to our center. Bob credits Job Corps and the Carpentry Union for making him the man he is today.

Lonnie Davis attended the University of Oregon and Oregon State University where he studied parks and recreation and wildlife biology for 3 ½ years. He took a position in a Salem cabinet shop and completed a 4-year apprenticeship. He went on to work at Eugene Sand and Gravel building concrete forms while waiting to get into the commercial carpentry apprenticeship program. He completed the 4 year apprenticeship program in 3 years and has been a journeyman carpenter ever since. He has worked as a journeyman carpenter, a foreman and a superintendent. He joined Job Corps in 1994 and has been a carpentry instructor since that time.

TARS: TARS, training achievement records, are used to track a student's completion of the specific skills needed to demonstrate proficiency in the duties and tasks used in an area of competency. This is an open entry and exit program wherein students progress at an individual pace. When a skill is demonstrated the instructor grades the student's achievement as 1 exposed/not proficient; 2 proficient or 3 proficient and able to teach others.

Enrollment: There are 40 slots in the carpentry program.

Tools: Students are issued a basic tool set which is theirs to keep upon completion of the program and acquiring related employment. Students are responsible for all tools assigned to them and if they are unable to account for them they are financially responsible to the Center Director.

The tools assigned include hand saw, 8 point; wallboard saw 6"; hammer; gooseneck bar; rafter angle square 7"; pocket tape, 25'; side cut pliers; leather carpenter tool belt; multi-bit screwdriver; level; chalk box and line; plumb bob; 12" adjustable wrench; tool box; hard hat; cat paw nail puller; and safety goggles/glasses.

Students also demonstrate proficiency in using hand power tools such as a portable power saw, portable power drill, and electric screwdriver.
Wolf Creek Job Corps · 2010 Opportunity Lane · Glide, OR 97443 · 1-800-588-9003 · Fax (541) 496-8515