Building a career

When construction of the 12,000-square-foot, $1.2 million structure on South Silver Springs Road is completed this fall, there may be enough wood left over for a small cabinet. Come August, students will learn how to build one.

Groundwork is underway for the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center expansion project, which includes shop space to teach cabinet making. Those in Southeast Missouri's cabinetry industry say there's a place for graduating students.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development, Division of Workforce Development has determined the employment outlook for cabinet makers and related areas in Missouri to be more than 10,000 by 2011. That estimate translates into an annual job-opening forecast of 955, with 78 in the Career and Technology Center's service area, which covers Southeast Missouri.

WW Wood Products, for instance, a cabinet-manufacturing company in Dudley, Mo., west of Dexter, Mo., currently employs about 800 workers.

"Our programs are based on what the local work-force need is," said Dean Whitlow, Career and Technology Center assistant director. "Sure, some students will relocate. But the culture of the trade is very important to us, and our students are acclimated to that culture."

Workers poured concrete for the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center's expansion building Friday. The addition will house electrical trades and cabinet making this fall.

Whitlow said the Cape Girardeau school board has gotten local input from the cabinet-making industry.

Steve Seyer, owner of S&W Cabinet & Millwork in Chaffee, Mo., has been working closely on the project, helping with the interior of the building, all the way down to specific brands of equipment, such as which saws, planers and sanders to buy.

"This is just an addition to what they already have going for them at the career center," Seyer said. "They have training in many different fields that businesses in the area can gain employees from."

'It's a great trade'

The architectural plan also calls for an electrical shop to accompany the cabinetry shop. Whitlow said the career center integrates usage of equipment and facilities as much as possible between classes.

"They've got to learn to work together," he said, pointing out the construction trades are interrelated. "Duct work for heating and cooling corresponds with piping for the sprinkler system."

The Beussink family, which has three woodwork businesses in Southeast Missouri, is responsible for a lot of the cabinet making in the area, according to Jeff Beussink of Beussink J M Cabinetry.

"It's a great trade," said Beussink, who supports the new effort at the career center. "A lot of people don't want to do physical labor anymore. They associate higher-paying jobs with office work."

According to center director Rich Payne, the turnout rate of graduating students ready for an entry-level position in the cabinetry industry should be 15 to 20 per term, if the class fills up.

"High school and adult students will leave with a special set of skills that employers are looking for," he said.

Greg Lacey, owner of Lacey's Custom Cabinets in Cape Girardeau, graduated from the building trades program at the vocational school in 1992 and started a business within three years.

"Go and get the training. You don't have to go the regular route and do what they teach in books," Lacey said. "I'm not saying everyone."

The son of a carpenter, Lacey learned to appreciate wood work as a boy. But he had more of a feel for the finished product.

"If your dad is a mechanic, you may have the chance to learn a little about cars," he said. "But if you want to build birdhouses, for example, the center gives people the opportunity to say, 'Hey, this flows easy for me.'"

In trade school, Lacey won a contest in cabinet making put on by the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. He's made a living off the trade ever since.

"That's a good opportunity those students have," he said.

tkrakowiak@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137