Finding and getting started on a great career right out of high school is rarely an easy task. Yet helping to make that happen is what Cloquet High School, through its building trades program, has set out to do with its students ... with a lot of help from some local trade unions.

Vocational teachers Dusty Rhoades and Bret Gunderson led the way in transforming an already well-developed industrial arts program into a comprehensive building trades curriculum. While their diverse course offerings have laid a foundation of key skills, the combined efforts of school, trade union, and industry ar...