Birmingham is home to nation’s only skilled trade high school and it’s putting students to work
- Updated: May. 19, 2025, 8:06 a.m.
- |Published: May. 19, 2025, 7:22 a.m.
Build UP students are working on a construction project as part of their curriculum. Pictured from left to right are Joshua Rose and Simeon Franklin, both juniors at Build UP.Alaina Bookman
In a series of stories, AL.com will continue to explore big ideas for transforming Birmingham.
Simeon Franklin takes precise measurements of metal boards and carefully cuts through them.
He ascends a ladder, hammering the boards into place beneath the roof of a shed he’s building from the ground up.
This is the work of a skilled tradesman -- and Franklin is only 17 years old.
At Build Urban Prosperity Community School, Franklin is part of a one-of-a-kind program in Birmingham: Students receive a high school diploma and associate’s degree while learning trades and building houses. They can choose to learn construction, automotive, electrical, HVAC and other skills. By the time they graduate, they have credentials, bank accounts and a pathway to home ownership.
“It makes me feel worthy, like I’m valuable. I can provide for people, whether it be my family or friends. Just having the skills to know that I can do something that makes me happy, it‘s reassuring, knowing that I have those skills in my tool belt,” Franklin told AL.com.
As interest in vocational skills increases, more high schools and colleges are expanding their career and technical education programs.
Build UP calls itself the nation’s first early college workforce development high school.
“We work at the intersection of education, workforce development and affordable housing to have a holistic and comprehensive solution to generational poverty. By having a through line through each of these, we’re able to better tackle the issue of educational inequity, lack of career skills and poverty,” David Hardin, CEO of Build UP, said.
The Build UP impact: ‘More opportunities’
Simeon Franklin, a junior at Build UP, is working to complete a shed.Alaina Bookman
With hard hats on, hammers pounding and drills whirling, Build UP students work together on the shed.
They take feedback from their teacher in stride. They maneuver around the worksite like professionals, patient as they troubleshoot issues, yet efficient and confident.
These skills did not come easily.
Franklin was homeschooled from fourth to eighth grade. He said Build UP taught him how to be open to new experiences.
“Coming to Build UP, I had to reprogram myself to understand that productivity is the natural flow of life. I had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Franklin said. “They’re helping me get that real life experience.”
As a junior, Franklin is one of many Build UP students working to make a lasting impact throughout Birmingham.
Build UP has graduated 42 students who all built and rehabilitated more than 30 homes purchased by low to moderate income individuals in Birmingham.
“I’m making a positive, a fruitful impact,” Franklin said. “Build UP has helped me learn that I can do whatever I need to do, and whatever I want to do, as long as I just get up and do it.”
Joshua Rose, a junior at Build Urban Prosperity Community School, is working an automotive internship that, her said, makes him feel confident in his ability to aid members of his community.Alaina Bookman
Joshua Rose, 17, said transferring to Build UP his sophomore year helped him to find himself.
“My freshman year, I was overwhelmed, I wasn’t focused or motivated. I feel like I was overlooked. I came here and I just really found myself. I’m able to strive, able to do what I got to do, get my work done,” Rose said.
Every week, Rose and his peers go out into the community to learn skills that will help to transform Birmingham.
“With Build UP, there‘s more opportunities. I feel it‘s more of a community. I’ve got a great connection with all my teachers, all my peers…I feel like Build UP has a very positive impact on the community.”
As a junior, Rose works an internship with New Metro Automotive, a local Black-owned mechanic shop.
“My internship now is more hands-on, more independent. I think they trust me a little bit more, and it‘s more like a community rather than a business. Everybody up there treats me like family,” Rose said.
Build UP aims to help students become productive members of their community.
What is Build UP Community School?
Since 2018, Build UP has provided low-income young people with career-ready skills.
The program uses industry-focused coursework and paid internships to create educated and credentialed leaders.
Participants split their time between the classroom, where they work toward earning a high school diploma, and job sites, where they build and rehabilitate affordable housing throughout Birmingham.
“I just knew this was something that could be a game changer for kids and communities, especially in low income and under resourced communities where they’ve seen so much disinvestment,” Mark Martin, Build UP‘s founder, CFO and board member, told AL.com.
“This is about empowering the youth to be the game changers and the change agents for their communities.”
It costs $10,000 to attend Build UP, but all families receive a scholarship through state tax credits that lowers tuition to $50 a month.
Build UP was originally located in the Ensley neighborhood. The school started with a team of 15 staff members and over 70 students.
“I was devastated and shocked at what a low bar we had in most of our city’s high schools...The system was miseducating children and not ensuring that they have opportunities when they leave high school,” Martin said.
“I think Build UP has changed that.”
Martin said Build UP is setting a new standard for education, career readiness and community revitalization.
“In Ensley, the investments that we’ve made are helping to transform that community,” Martin said.
“One of the first houses that we did was on Fourth Avenue South, which literally had human trafficking, drug trafficking. It was one of the more dangerous places...Today though, that street has completely changed, and we built four houses on it.”
Since 2018, home market values on Fourth Avenue South in Ensley have risen, according to the Jefferson County Property Tax Administration.
The school recently moved to Titusville, allowing students to extend their reach to another Birmingham community in need of revitalization.
Build UP currently supports 50 students, with 100% of juniors and seniors placed in internships, which include the National Association of Women in Construction, New Metro Automotive Service and Magic City ToolBank, according to the program.
In those internships, students earn a $300 monthly stipend and high-demand trade certifications.
Many of the upcoming graduates have already received multiple job offers with local employers such as Hoar Construction and Sophia Consulting.
“In their work-based learning course, they get exposure to the fundamentals of the trades, carpentry, electrical, piping, etc. But really, we use that as a vehicle to teach them career skills, because ultimately, what we’re doing is getting them ready to be the drivers of what career path they’re going to go down,” Hardin said.
Each student opens a bank account, and the school works to teach them financial literacy skills.
Build UP also follows students two years after graduation with regular check-ins to help them learn new job skills, build their credit and coach them through the home buying process.
If students meet the six-year criteria, Build UP provides them with a low-interest mortgage with equity in the home through local partnerships.
The Build UP promise
Build UP Principal Brearn Wright and Assistant Principal Arnold Stringer recently held an open house for potential students and their families.
“My bond with the students is very important. Tying that love, the academics and the belief that you can come out of this is what makes this work. A lot of students that we get are fed up with school. We’re trying to reinvigorate that love for learning,” Stringer said to the families.
“Although our name is Build UP, we’re trying to tear down some of those misconceptions of ‘I can’t do it. It‘s too hard.’ You can do it here.”
William Blake Terry is a contractor that teaches an automotive repair class at Build UP. He said he is teaching the next generation of leaders.Alaina Bookman
Every week, William Blake Terry, a contractor that teaches an automotive repair class at Build UP, comes to the school bright and early. He lifts the garage doors and leads his students on lessons on shop safety, basic automotive services, braking systems and engine repair.
“We are able to give real world skills to people who need them, and we are able to prepare them for the rest of their life,” Terry said.
With the skills he learned from his automotive class and his internship, Rose recently helped a family friend fix her tire.
He said Build UP has helped him to feel confident that he can help others throughout his community.
“It just feels really good to know that what you’re teaching is not only received, but understood and proven,” Terry said. “I love when my students are able to make the connection, when they have that ‘aha’ moment…Seeing them grow, and learn and earn these skills that they’ll have for life, it just makes me very happy.”
In 2022, in the U.S., 69.3% of the automotive service technicians and mechanics workforce were white, compared to 25.5% who were Hispanic, 7.4% who were Black and 3.62% who were Asian, according to Data USA.
The automotive industry lacks both gender and racial diversity at the leadership level, according to a 2020 U.S. International Trade Commission report.
“I want everyone to know that the students I teach can be just as qualified and certified to perform the services as anybody else. Typically, you don‘t see a lot of African American people in the automotive industry,” Terry said.
“These students are the next leaders in the industry.”
Nathaniel McBride, the Build UP Career and Technical Education teacher, has led his students in multiple construction projects.Alaina Bookman
Nathaniel McBride, the Build UP Career and Technical Education instructor, teaches his students about workplace etiquette, safety and carpentry.
His students have worked on multiple construction projects from installing walls within the school to building homes in the community. Their current projects include building sheds and pods for meditation.
“Most our kids are from environments where there‘s a lot of negativity, people telling them ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that‘...So here, I try to foster positivity,” McBride said.
He said some of his students told him that they don’t have bed frames, so he is teaching them how to build them.
“It‘s giving them a sense of pride, having that skill set,” McBride said. “These kids have a great opportunity to learn skills that no one can ever take from them.”
Build UP also helps the community. Students work alongside construction professionals to build and refurbish homes.
Rebuilding local neighborhoods
In addition to transforming existing, substandard housing in blighted neighborhoods, quality homes from other locations are loaded onto trucks, transported into the neighborhood and put back together on vacant lots.
“We’re revitalizing the community. Our students have actively worked on several homes that have become owned and purchased by community members. We have fixed a lot of blighted houses. We’ve helped to raise property values. Many of our students’ families have rented or owned the houses that we have worked on,” Hardin said.
Torrey Washington (second from right) holds a ceremonial key to his new house in Birmingham. Washington, 21, is one of the first graduates of BuildUP's high school build to own program. Photo courtesy of BuildUP.
Torrey Washington was one of Build UP‘s first students. In 2023, Washington became a homeowner in one of the houses he rehabilitated.
Washington is the only student, so far, to receive a home through the Build UP program. Wright said he is determined to changed that.
“We are really cracking down on that piece, because if we’re making this promise of home ownership to families and the students, we got to uphold that promise,” Wright said.
Hardin said Build UP delivers on its promise to create productive community members.
“The whole notion is that they have been working on homes since they were freshmen in high school, and now they have the financial literacy to be good stewards of their wealth and they also have the skills to be good stewards of their home,” Hardin said.
What‘s next for Build UP?
Another Build UP program is YouthBuild, a community-based pre-apprenticeship program.
YouthBuild serves young adults, ages 16 to 24, who may have struggled in a traditional academic setting and left school without a diploma.
Participants earn a high school diploma or GED and vocational training in fields such as construction, health care and information technology.
Build UP is also opening a third school to tackle blight and poverty in Selma.
“We’re taking students and through the power of education, real world career skills and affordable homeownership, we’re building generational wealth and community stewardship. That‘s how we’re changing Birmingham,” Hardin said.
Families who are interested in applying to Build UP can register here.
