Eddie Williams took two years of building trades classes at the Giles County Technology Center while a Giles High School student. He thought the classes could train him for the real business world of construction.

They did.

When he graduated he went to work building residential housing. That was in 1983. Fifteen years later, Williams came back to the Giles County Technology and now teaches the next generation of tradesmen and women.

For more than a year, technology center students have been working on an RV cabin that is now receiving its finishing touches. It will be sold to the highest bidder and the funds returned to the center.

About two dozen students in the center's building trades, welding, drafting and automotive technology programs worked on the project. Drafting teacher Sandra Kelley, a 1981 Giles graduate, said her students began working on the cabin in April 2004. Crystal Adkins, who graduated last month from GHS, spent several weeks drafting the design plans.

Construction began with teacher Dusty Stump's welding class, which acquired a trailer and axles. Then automotive technology teacher Randall Westbook's students worked on tires and brakes. The building trades classes took on the rest of the project.

The finished product features a bathroom, kitchenette, porch, cedar siding, breaker box and three-axle trailer. Last week, Williams was putting finishing touches on the cabin. While it was a group project, the building trades students contributed about 80 percent of the labor.

Logan Witt spent his junior year working on the cabin. He said he'd buy it himself if he could afford it.

Logan, 16, who will be a GHS senior this fall, said he has always been interested in working with his hands. Building trades is offered to Giles County juniors and seniors, so as a sophomore, Logan spent a day shadowing the older students. He thinks the skills he's learning will come in handy both professionally and personally.

"No matter what you do, job-wise, you use all this stuff in residential homes. It's nice to know how to do this," said Logan, who will take the senior building trades class this fall.

Building trades student Phillip Fillinger, 18, who just graduated from Narrows High, also worked on the cabin. He already gained real world experience in construction through an internship with Cass Construction that was arranged through the technology center.

Fillinger's interest began years before taking classes at the center.

"It started with my grandpa," he said. "He's done a lot of construction, down to handmade objects out of wood."

As a child, Fillinger tried to help.

Now he has his choice of two different construction jobs -- one building hardwood floors, and the other building a subdivision in Blacksburg. Fillinger also plans to take an instrumentation class at New River Community College this fall to learn how to calibrate machinery.

Alvin Jones, who has taught precision machinery at the technology center for 18 years, said most students are thinking long-range.

"About 60 to 70 percent work when the graduate and others go on to NRCC. A majority stay in the field," Jones said. The support of local industries, such as Celanese and MOOG, have helped provide materials to the center and jobs for students, he said.

The center has a fund to purchase supplies for student projects. The revenue from the cabin's sale, which will be sold to the highest bidder, will go back into the program and used for future projects.