West Sound Tech Partner Spotlight:
Andersen Construction is thrilled to be a part of the West Sound Tech community.
We’re a family-owned general contractor, founded in Portland, Oregon in 1950. Andersen has grown from a $2,000 loan and a pickup truck into the northwest’s Builder of Choice, forecasted near one billion dollars in total volume in 2023. The Andersen family has long been devoted to individual career growth throughout their enterprise. Andy Andersen, our founder, helped to develop Oregon State University’s pioneering Construction Management program, a long-standing incubator of generations of construction professionals. More recently, Andy’s grandson, Joel Andersen, has worked to develop our Project Technician role. The Project Technician apprenticeship program takes highly motivated individuals with diverse education and experiences through a three-year work training program embedded at a jobsite. At the end of the process, they are a fully qualified Andersen Construction Project Engineer, the same role that is typically only hired from traditional college graduates.
Closer to Bremerton, Andersen’s Seattle office has developed the Imagine initiative, partnering with housing outreach foundations, support groups, and pre-apprenticeship programs to provide a pathway from housing insecurity to a lucrative and rewarding career in the construction trades.
We’re especially proud of our long history with West Sound Tech, going back so far that it was then called the Kitsap Peninsula Vocational Skills Center. Andersen employs three graduates of the Construction Trades Program and Welding program, one a general foreman working at a large commercial remodel for T-Mobile’s headquarters in Bellevue, two others currently working on WST’s current expansion! We plan on building upon our participation in such events as Explore Your Future, Try a Trade, and mock interviews with direct construction involvement for several of WST’s current programs. Students from the Multi Craft Trades, Welding, HVAC, and other classes will have an opportunity to interact directly with our crews, attending safety meetings, jobsite tours, and hands-on demonstrations. Even more important, our team members could be some of these students’ earliest professional networking efforts, literally showing them the way into an accredited, paid, apprenticeship.
Former West Sound Tech Students Working at Andersen Construction