ABC

GREENPORT — The seventh year of Columbia-Greene Community College’s Construction Technology Program crossed the finish line May 12, as students presented the final product of their two-semester course to the public: a fully livable tiny home built largely from scratch.

The program takes students — many of whom have zero construction experience — and puts them through an intensive curriculum that meets nine hours a day, three days a week. The goal is to encourage young people to enter the construction trades. At the end of the year, the house they’ve built is sold or auctioned off, with proceeds going back into the program.

Andrew Soltano, the program’s professor and a working contractor, said the program exists because of a severe shortage of skilled construction workers.

“I’m kind of there to train and support the next generation, because at some point, I’m going to be too old to do it,” he laughed.

That shortage, he said, stems from a generation steered toward four-year degrees and away from the trades.

“For a long time, everyone was told, you have to go to college and get a four-year degree, and I don’t disagree you need to be educated, (but) I don’t know if everyone needs a liberal arts degree,” Soltano said, adding: “Blue collar is actually a very valuable and a very lucrative business if you’re willing to put the time and energy in to learn.”

The program covers a broad range of skills — not just framing or roofing, but plumbing and electrical work as well.

“We just give them an opportunity to see a bunch of things, and hopefully they run with it,” Soltano said.

Brian Sampson, president of Empire State Associated Builders and Contractors, said there was “absolutely” a problem bringing a new generation into construction, in part because “policymakers, elected officials, and arguably, parents” have “disincentivized people from going into the trades.”

New York compounds the problem with steep costs for contractors, including high workers’ compensation and general liability insurance, Sampson said. Many contractors are looking to expand into Southern states, but he did not know of a single one looking to relocate to New York.

In Columbia County, where Columbia-Greene Community College’s Construction Technology Program is based, the need is driven by “a sustained post-COVID real estate boom, an ongoing shortage of skilled tradespeople and a high concentration of home renovations,” said F. Michael Tucker, president of the Columbia Economic Development Corporation.

Soltano said the growing anxiety over AI and its threat to the job market might actually work in the trades’ favor — he doesn’t foresee construction workers being replaced by large language models anytime soon.

The bar to enter his class, he added, is refreshingly low: “We start with how to swing a hammer.”

This year’s tiny house is 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and 13 ½-feet tall, with a fully outfitted kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, a mini-split unit and a sleeping loft. It’s listed at $46,000.

Spaces remain open for next semester. Interested students can email admissions@sunycgcc.edu