RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — From where we live, work, dine, and shop– construction impacts our daily lives.
At Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) students are getting hands-on experience with concrete and construction.
In Nashville, it feels like a crane can be found on every corner. From luxury apartments to the new Nissan Stadium, construction is never on pause.
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At MTSU, students are learning the ins and outs of the industry.
“What we do here is we train the next generation of leaders in the concrete and construction industry,” said Thomas Nicholas, director of the School of Concrete and Construction Management.
MTSU offers the School of Concrete and Construction Management program. It’s one of the fastest growing programs on MTSU’s campus with a vacuum of jobs in the southeast.
“Concrete is a limited program, we were the first Concrete and Construction Management program in the United States,” said Rachel Shawver, Junior at MTSU.
Concrete and Construction is a four-year degree. Shawver will graduate next May. “It is a male-dominated field but there are a lot of women, so I was able to brighten my horizons with it and I was very excited.”
When it comes to creating concrete, there is a lot that goes into making it.
“What people don’t realize, concrete is the second most used material in the world next to water so that’s a big recourse in America. You see construction booming in Nashville and all over the world so it’s always going to be needed,” Shawver said.
And while students are mixing concrete 24/7 on campus, they are also learning management skills.
“On the construction side what we are looking to do is teach them how to calculate construction costs, so we have a cost estimation class, a means and methods class, how do we build a building? How to build a roadway? How do we build a bridge?”
Director of the School of Concrete and Construction Management, Thomas Nicholas, said it’s an industry that will always be in demand as infrastructure is essential to our daily lives.
“Everything that we do, whether we drive to work, go into a building, live in at a home in our house is all because of construction,” Nicholas said.
