School of Wood: The KCB Apprentice Training Program

Where would Major League Baseball be without the farm team system? They feed players who make it to “The Show” to MLB teams. What is the equivalent for the home design industry? There are limited opportunities to learn trade skills in a classroom. In New England, beyond vocational high schools, there is North Bennet Street School and few other programs. Historically, apprenticeships happened with master craftsmen.

In 2024, many young tradespeople learn plumbing, electrical, pipe fitting, sprinkler fitting, caulking, glazers, tin knockers - which is actually HVAC duct work - on the job. Unions offer formalized training, but most of those jobs are in the commercial space. Enter Kevin Cradock Builders and the seeds for the apprentice program.

For years there’s been an acknowledged shortage of skilled tradespeople and a lack of young people pursuing the trades (as college education has been pushed as the pathway to success). KCB Founder Kevin Cradock and longtime KCB executive team member Nathan McBride had often talked about what they could do to change the situation.

March 15, 2024 Apprentice training - deck framing - in the Boiler Room with Nate McBride - (All photos by Corey Nuffer, In-house Storyteller)

“We’ve perceived for years that there are at least two primary challenges for our production team: we need more young tradespeople coming in to our workplaces, and we need to train them to a level that will support our projects’ technical needs while helping enable these developing carpenters to sustain a life in or around Boston, “ Nate says..

KCB had a relationship in place with Madison Park Technical Vocational High School (a program of Boston Public Schools), and students previously interned in the millshop. Expanding this into a formalized apprenticeship program took place during the pandemic. 

“I went into this project with a clear mandate from Kevin to move forward with creating a functional training program, but was determined not to reinvent as many wheels as we’ve sometimes done in the past. This meant doing a lot of digging into what other companies and organizations were doing to train apprentices and track their progress., “ Nate explains. “What was striking was how few resources were readily available for the type of training we wanted to convey: specific knowledge and background in historic home renovation, for example, as well as more general carpentry knowledge. In the absence of an available resource that covered enough of our needs, we went ahead with developing a program based on what we’d actually like our carpenters to be able to do, and since then have been working to reverse-engineer this into a progression that is achievable, repeatable, and flexible–since we are constantly finding areas we need to develop, or didn’t frame correctly in the first place, or maybe completely forgot about when we first started.” 

Millwork Manager Eric Swanson with apprentice Sarah H.

Varied Backgrounds of the KCB Apprentices

Now in its third year, there are 10 apprentices in the program; 7 in the field and 3 in the millshop. Some of the apprentices have come from high school vocational programs, others are new to the field, while others have had some experience working in carpentry. 

“We see their varied backgrounds as a strength,” says Kevin Cradock. “But mostly it is their willingness to learn and develop their craft that keeps them engaged.”

Sabrina once worked on fishing boats. Henry immigrated here from Columbia and is not only apprenticing in our mill shop but is part of the E for All business incubator. His business is turning scrap wood into cutting boards, coasters and the like. In the case of Sarah, she comes to the team as a former journalist. After the magazine she worked for shuttered in 2019, she entertained the idea of writing for a home renovation magazine but was dismayed at the poor job security in journalism. She then took to an online search which led to Kevin Cradock Builders. Sarah and Sabrina are two of the women apprentices in the program, along with Isshoni, or “Sho” for short, who not only has experience as a carpenter in both union and non-union jobs but also graduated with a degree in textiles. Of course, there’s always room for more women in the trades. 

And since we’re naming names and shoutouts, we have two new Madison Park participants, along with two graduates who have stayed on. Brian and Edras (or “Blad,” his middle name) both graduated last year and are thriving. Chuck spent some time at North Bennet Street School, coming to us with a more developed skill set. Dashawn (“Dash” for short), Eric, Rob, and Burke took the courageous leap into the unknown in joining our team.

Want to know more about the KCB Apprentice Training Program? Join us on Thursday, June 20 at 5:30 in the Boiler Room for our After Hours event: School of Wood: Charting a Course for the Future with the KCB Apprentices. The event is free but registration is required

The Mechanics of the Program

Besides their on-the-job training, the apprentices meet three times a month for extracurricular sessions, and their progress is tracked on the Skills Chart, a four-tiered structure that attempts to lay out a pathway from their own initial skill level to full proficiency. Nate and others on the team are constantly working on staying ahead of the group with new training topics, new resources for them to use, and new ways to help spread more formalized training out to the shop and job sites.

Earlier this year, the apprentices helped out with a project at The Eliot School in Jamaica Plain, framing, roofing and siding a storage shed to match the classic one already at the school. The shed is in full service and several boxes were checked on the group’s skills charts. 

“While we initially thought of the shed project as a chance to experience a full frame project–starting from a grassy field and ending up with a structure–the project was key in developing other areas too: additional skills for the apprentice team of course, like trim, flashing and roofing, but also some important realizations about the inherent challenges for trainers who are working with a larger group of people, on a project that has a real schedule and budget,” Nate notes.