Garfield’s lesser-visited Teen Life Center, next to the Quincy Jones building, holds Seattle Skills Center classes for Garfield students that are offered as an introduction to various trade jobs. Other classes include digital art, photography, nursing, and culinary classes, just to name a few. Courses like these are available to all SPS students, creating another opportunity to meet new people and develop skills beyond high school. 

Senior Owen Allen has been taking classes in commercial construction trade with SPS. In the trade application process, there are a couple of options Allen explained “There’s the union option…so it’s a little like college you have to apply, you do an interview and they see if they want you. You can apply as many times as you want. The other option is going the commercial route and applying for a company and building your trades through that company.” Allen himself is looking at commercial plumbing. “There’s a lot of money there,” Allen said.  Allen has had a positive experience in this trade. While working as a general contractor he “really loved it. It was really cool to work on something and see the finished product and see someone enjoy that finished product.”

The Skills Center is “more for career options rather than college options,” Allen explained.  “[It’s]similar to Running Start in the way that you would go off-campus and you have a different class schedule and set up,” Allen said, it’s an “alternative to a regular six periods every day.” Junior Ryan Wood, who’s taking his second year of the Advanced Aerospace Manufacturing program and thinking of going into maritime trades, agreed, adding “they’re looking for people to join and they have a high demand for us.” Wood continued with his take on these classes and his future: “I think what some people don’t understand is that pursuing the trades right now isn’t forgoing college. For me, I still want to go to college, but it might happen when I’m a little older and have a better idea of what it is I want to do.” Wood believes “it’s important to consider student debt, and how to manage it for those who will have it. I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to pursue a higher education and accumulate such vast debt at a young age when you could spend that time exploring and learning exactly what you wanna do.” Wood is also loving the program. Both students find the community to be “positive”, “supporting”, with “great teachers”, and a learning space that is “nice across all the skill levels.” 

With a welcoming community and countless opportunities, one would think the Skill Center would be more well-known. Allen commented on the lack of publicity “I don’t think the school pushes it enough. Or just push it as another alternative to college.” So, for students looking for an alternative to college or a different approach to education, Wood suggested “just do it, there’s no disadvantage to learning practical skills. They will definitely come in handy later in life no matter what you learn.”