Ohio Construction Academy
Turning Classrooms into Jobsites and Students into Professionals

Career readiness is shifting, and skilled trades are leading the change. What was once treated as a post-graduation option is now being discovered much earlier. As the demand for qualified trade professionals continues to grow, students and families are asking a new question, “Can a high school actively accelerate young people into meaningful careers before they even turn eighteen?”

Ohio Construction Academy (OCA) answers with a decisive yes.

A tuition-free, career-driven technical education high school, OCA redefines what a community-serving institution can be. Serving students in grades nine through twelve, from ages fourteen to twenty-one, it integrates rigorous academics with hands-on workforce training across four essential construction trades: carpentry, electrical, welding and plumbing. Students graduate not only with a high school diploma, but also with the skills, credentials and experience required to move directly into the workforce, higher education or registered apprenticeships.

“Students clock in, contribute, get paid and earn school credit all at once,” says Matthew Demosky, director of high school operations.

Over eight years at the academy, Demosky has served as dean of students, principal and now director, providing leadership continuity that has helped the program mature and scale.

From Tuition-Free Training to Industry-Valued Credentials

OCA removes financial barriers that often prevent students from pursuing skilled trades. Students can earn between eight and ten professional certifications, including OSHA, CPR and First Aid credentials. In the open market, those certifications can cost upward of $20,000. At OCA, they come at no cost to the student.

The academy also provides personal protective equipment, including safety glasses, boots and hard hats, allowing students to focus fully on learning in a safe, professional environment.

Hands-on learning sits at the center of the experience. After earning safety certifications, students spend the majority of their day in OCA’s million-dollar, state-of-the-art construction lab. There, classrooms operate like active job sites as students wire electrical panels, build structures, weld materials and lay out plumbing systems under close supervision. Learning is tactile, practical and rooted in real-world application from the first day.

Academics remain fully integrated into the model. Through a partnership with Columbus State Community College, OCA offers College Credit Plus beginning as early as tenth grade. Sophomores, juniors and seniors can enroll in college-level courses while in high school, earning transferable credits that appear on their high school and college transcripts.

High School Becomes a Paid On-Ramp to the Trades

By junior or senior year, OCA’s training evolves into a second phase focused on real employment. Students are placed into paid pre-apprenticeships with construction companies across the region. These placements mirror traditional hiring processes, with student ages sixteen to eighteen working full time, earning between $20 and $25 an hour.

OCA’s outcomes reflect the strength of that model. It maintains a 90 percent job placement rate, with eighteen out of every twenty graduates securing employment in the construction trades upon graduation.

One student enrolled at OCA as a tenth grader and completed all academic coursework, state testing requirements and construction certifications within two years. By his senior year, the academy placed him in a pre-apprenticeship with Miles McClellan Construction, where he worked forty hours a week earning $20 an hour. After graduating in June, he received a full-time employment offer from the same company. Two years later, he is progressing toward journeyman status, earning between $32 and $35 an hour at just twenty years old, all without a dollar of college debt.

Behind these results is a highly experienced instructional team. Each of OCA’s career-tech programs is led by instructors with over thirty years of field experience, many of whom have transitioned from long careers in the trades to mentor the next generation.

OCA demonstrates that academics and real-world career opportunities can coexist. By transforming high school into a true career engine, OCA equips students with the credentials, experience and momentum to enter adulthood on solid professional footing.