Steve Cass, a Department of Transportation employee, shows Robert Authelet, a 10th grade student from Exeter-West Greenwich High School, how to build a brick wall at Construction Career Days.

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

EAST GREENWICH — Jake Martin, a Coventry High School senior on his way to a career in carpentry, stepped away from building a sample roof, 3 feet by 4 feet but with all the components of the real thing — rafters, joists, sheathing and shingles.

When he builds something, he said Thursday, and he can step back and look at what he has built, and it gives him a powerful feeling of satisfaction.

“I get such a good feeling when it’s done,” he said. “It’s a really rewarding feeling.”

More than many 17-year-olds, he also has a clear idea of where he’s going.

He was one of hundreds of young people who attended two Construction Career Days, sponsored Wednesday and Thursday by the state Department of Transportation, trade unions, the University of Rhode Island and others interested in construction.

The event brought a fleet of construction equipment — a backhoe, a bulldozer, a cherry-picker and so forth — plus skilled craftspeople and their equipment to the DOT’s facility on New London Turnpike, a vast building that is home to equipment such as snowplows in winter. There was a miniature brick wall going up, and a screw gun near a panel of drywall thick with screws.

What’s going on?

One goal, some of those running the event said, is to show young people something about careers in an industry that has its ups and downs but will always be there.

Beyond that, changes in the industry are pushing some participants to urge young people to consider a career in construction.

“We have an aging work force,” said Philip Kydd, an assistant director at the DOT. Citing national statistics, the department says that construction occupations are expected to grow at least through 2016, but that the average age in the skilled trades — from carpenters to bricklayers to equipment operators — is 47 and climbing.

The DOT spends upwards of $200 million per year hiring contractors and other businesses to build and repair the state’s roads and bridges, and it wants a healthy construction industry to produce as many competitive bids on its projects as possible.

(The DOT is also sponsoring an Engineering Career Day at URI on Friday for high-school freshmen and sophomores. It will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Engineering Department in Kirk and Wales Halls at URI’s South Kingstown campus.)

Construction trade unions operate substantial training programs — several of them represented yesterday — channeling young people into the unions while giving them skills from the start of their careers.

Charles Johnson, a member Carpenters Local 94, works at the union’s Carpenters Training Center in Millbury, Mass., that teaches everything a carpenter might need to know — from using a framing square to carpenters’ math and reading blueprints.

Johnson said carpenters in this area make $51 per hour, which includes both wages and fringe benefits such as pension and health insurance –– when the carpenter’s working. He said union carpenters normally work an average of about 1,400 hours per year, which adds up to $71,000 —including fringe benefits along with wages. On the other hand, with a recession, “It’s not very promising right now.”

“In a good year, we’ve placed every kid who wanted a job,” said Scott Leavitt, a carpentry instructor at Coventry High School. He said he doesn’t think he can make that promise this year.

But wherever the economy is in its cycles, building things appeals.

“I like machines, and I like working with my hands,” said Rafael Gotierrez, a ninth grader at the New England Laborers Construction Career Academy in Cranston –– a cooperative venture of the Laborers’ International Union of North America and the Cranston Public Schools. When he graduates, he’ll have a high school diploma and entry to the union’s apprentice program.

blandis@projo.com