Yes they CAMT

CCC students learn apartment maintenance skills

By Krista Allen
Special to the Times

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Now that 16-year-old Bryan Redhair has the technical skills, he is going to fix his grandmother’s air conditioning unit, repair the hole in the roof, and start keeping her home in tip-top condition.

“And fix everything up in the house,” said Redhair, the youngest student in Coconino Community College’s Certificate for Apartment Maintenance Technicians program. “Now, learning about this, I’ll be able to do it.”

Redhair was lucky enough to become part of the CAMT program – which consists of regular vocational training courses compressed into five weeks – when the minimum age for instruction was lowered this year from 18 to 16.

The CAMT program, now in its fifth year at CCC in Flagstaff, is an extensive, 102-hour program and is currently in Page. Lectures take place at CCC’s Page Instructional Site and hands-on labs take place at the Coconino Association for Vocations, Industry and Technology building five times a week.

For eight hours a day, students learn about a number of things, including electromechanics, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, among a long list of others.

“So, I signed up and it’s been really cool and fun,” Redhair said, admitting that he signed up for the program at the start because he knew he would not have anything to do for the summer.

For Norman Richardson, 45, the program provides an opportunity for him to stay close to home and be near his family instead of traveling from job to job as a welder.

“Being home, I can help my dad and my elders with their cattle and sheep because they’re older now,” Richardson said. “(This program) gives me an opportunity to help them and help myself to keep stable.”

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