HOULTON, Maine — Starting this fall, the next generation of plumbers will be able to start the long journey on their preferred career path.
Thanks to a collaborative effort between the Region Two Career and Technical Education Center in Houlton and Harbison Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, a new mechanical services course will be offered to area high school students.
Region Two Director Dave Keaton said he has had an interest in adding a plumbing and heating course at the career center, located in Houlton, for a couple of years. As fate would have it, he was approached by a local businessman, David Harbison, Jr., owner of Harbison Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning of Houlton, about the possibility of joining forces.
“Dave came in just about the time I was getting ready to survey the students as to what programs they are interested in,” Keaton said. “The timing really was uncanny because this was something I had been thinking about for awhile.”
“I think it is a fair statement to make that anyone who owns or works in the trades industry of any kind knows how difficult it is to find, not only qualified workers, but any workers at all that are interested in being employed in the trades,” Harbison stated in his written proposal to Region Two. “I believe that the short and long term solutions to this problem start at the high school level. It is of utmost importance to introduce these trades in our local Regional School of Applied Technology.”
The issue of space was a problem, however, that kept recurring whenever Keaton started to think about how to incorporate a new mechanical services program at the school.
“We have basically run out of space in this building,” he said.
Harbison offered a solution — hosting the class at his business, located at 98 Bangor St. The course will be the only program of its type offered north of Bangor.
“I personally feel that this is an excellent opportunity for industry and education to network together to fix a challenging problem we all face — a lack of available workforce,” Harbison said. “It is also my opinion that the next pool of available tradespeople are currently freshmen in high school. That’s a ways away, but we need to get this effort started now.”
Interest in the new offering already appears to be high with the students, who hail from Houlton Middle-High, Hodgdon Middle-High, East Grand, Southern Aroostook and Katahdin schools.
“Every year, we do new program surveys to determine if their are other programs we can offer,” Keaton said. “We found 39 kids that were definitely interested in this course.”
Unfortunately, Keaton said that in order to receive state funding for a new course, 60 percent of the student population needed to express an interest in the program. The 39 students who were interested only make up 12.38 percent.
To get the program off the ground, the two men decided to make it a pilot program, with a fundraising campaign used to help cover the expense of equipment and a teacher’s salary.
“We will start the program this fall and see where it goes,” Keaton said.
