Clayton Home Building Group® Offers Hands-On Experience Through ACE Trades Day

Around 200 East Tennessee high school students attended ACE Trades Day, an immersive, hands-on career exploration event hosted at Pellissippi State Community College's Strawberry Plains Campus in Knoxville, TN.

Students rotated through industry stations to explore a variety of skilled trades, including a Clayton Home Building Group®-sponsored carpentry booth where attendees assembled sidewalls based on schematics used in the modern manufactured homebuilding process.

Under the guidance of Gavin Mabe, Senior Director of Engineering and Technology, and the Clayton® Manager in Training cohort, one group of students built the window frames out of finished lumber while another drilled the window frames to studs and plates to complete the sidewall.

"It was a great experience, giving back to the community I'm from," said Materials Manager in Training Braden Simon. "A lot of these students are so interested in what we're doing and we've heard many of them say they would do this work full time and ask when they can start, so things like that are pretty cool to hear."

Other popular stations included those presented by Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB), which taught students about the maintenance of natural gas and water pipelines and power lines, and Cherokee Millwright and Mechanical®, which brought a crane that students could operate while supervised.

ACE Trades Day is an initiative of the ACE Mentor Program of America®, a nationally recognized nonprofit that introduces high school students to careers in architecture, construction and engineering.

Investing in the Future

While students were the focus of ACE Trades Day, Clayton's Managers in Training gained invaluable leadership and project management experience.

Braden and Sales Manager in Training Jantai Malataev, who are both stationed at Clayton Appalachia, a homebuilding facility in Andersonville, TN, were responsible for acquiring all the lumber used at ACE Trades Day. Working with Clayton Appalachia Assistant Materials Manager Nathan Stamps, Braden and Jantai collected more than 100 16-ft. two-by-fours.

Then, with the sawmill department's assistance, Braden and Jantai cut the lumber into 15.5-in., 17-in. and 33-in. pieces.

"I don't think either of us had any experience cutting wood, so we spent a day in the sawmill and they showed us the ropes," said Braden. "It's all repetition once you figure it out."

Manager in Training Jantai Malataev helps ACE Trades Day attendees assemble a window frame

They also spent two weeks building sidewall with the production team so they could better instruct students at ACE Trades Day. Once all the lumber was cut, Braden and Jantai arranged a flatbed truck to transport the materials to Pellissippi State.

There, Braden, Jantai and their fellow Managers in Training sorted the lumber into stacks by size and erected the workstations that students used to build window frames and sidewalls.

"I think this project gives us a great opportunity to grow our leadership skills," said Jantai. "It was all on us to collaborate and identify the resources we needed. It combined a lot of what we're learning, including production and project management."

The Clayton Manager in Training Program is designed to develop aspiring leaders into well-rounded management professionals. Managers in Training can choose from one of eight career disciplines: production, materials, customer care, environmental health and safety, team member experience, operations, sales and quality assurance.

Managers in Training are placed in facilities across Clayton Home Building Group and paired with experienced professionals to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence needed for a management role within Clayton.

"I didn't have any experience in manufacturing, so it's cool to learn from the ground up and be surrounded by people with decades of experience," said Jantai. "I want to have an impact on people that live in the houses we build."