Habitat for Humanity teaches teens trade skills in Fayetteville

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- Fayetteville's Habitat for Humanity chapter and dozens of sponsors in the area are holding a camp training teens in trade skills this week. Organizers say they are trying to open an array of career opportunities for young people and teach skills that will help around the home.

Ezekial Guzman told ABC11 that Habitat for Humanity's trade skills camp for teens is right up his alley. The 16-year-old said he has aspirations of being an electrician or a welder.

"I've always been, Iike, a hardworking person and I like to get my hands dirty," Guzman said.

Fayetteville's Habitat For Humanity said it wanted to give teens like Guzman a chance to learn various skills from licensed tradesmen that they could use around the home.

"Today we learned how to reassemble and disassemble a toilet. And then yesterday, we learned how to use sheetrock and cover up holes," Guzman said.

Habitat said this is a chance to show young people a variety of potentially lucrative career options they have outside of pursuing a traditional four-year college degree.

"The average age for someone in the trade is 55," said Brandon Price, the CEO of Fayetteville Area Habitat for Humanity. "So we're losing a lot of that wisdom. So that means many of our tradesmen are aging out of the trades. If we could get more young folks into the trades by teaching them and exposing them, then we're going to produce more folks into the field."

Habitat also said this can equip young people to be more self-sufficient when making basic home repairs. It's something organizers hope will save the students and their families hundreds -- if not thousands--of dollars when they grow up and have a home of their own.

"They just teach us a lot of basic stuff that everybody needs to learn," Guzman said. "I think it's great."