When Jeff Gibson and his wife launched “The Shop Class NV” through their Gibson McGath Foundation, they had a clear mission: Address the construction industry’s worker shortage while giving high school students hands-on experience in the skilled trades.
Their innovative approach? Having students build tiny homes from start to finish, learning every aspect of construction while creating something tangible and valuable.
The inspiration comes from Gibson’s journey into the trades.
As a teenager, he began an apprenticeship with a small general contractor, graduating from high school with his journeyman card in carpentry. He went on to master multiple skilled trades, choosing that path over college despite having the opportunity for higher education.
“I just loved the trades,” Gibson explained. “It was just a unique thing to be able to sit back and watch and build things from scratch.”
That passion drives his concern about the industry’s challenges. The construction industry needs to bring in nearly 454,000 new workers in 2025 alone, beyond normal hiring, to meet demand, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors.
“It is the most evolving industry in the world,” Gibson said. “It’s the most innovative industry in the world. And we’re losing the cutting edge, so to speak, with the people pouring into the industry.”
The foundation’s approach emerged when Gibson’s wife and business partner, who was inspired by the tiny-home trend popularized on networks like HGTV, envisioned local high school students building these compact structures as a comprehensive learning experience.
The nonprofit’s name pays homage to the traditional high school shop classes that Gibson remembers fondly — classes that gave students practical skills and a potential career path.
“We all have great experiences of going to high school and doing something with the shop class,” said Gibson, president of the nonprofit. “I made a pen, I made some bowls, I made a perfect bird feeder for my mom. And those were all cool, fun projects. Now we want to relate that to the real world, and that’s why we brought in the tiny houses.”
The program is based at four Henderson high schools: Pinecrest Academy, Lake Mead Christian Academy, Green Valley Christian and Green Valley High School.
Classes are roughly two hours a day, four days a week for the entire school year, Gibson said. Students learn basic safety and tools, then the blueprints of the actual structure they’re going to build and about budgeting and project management.
“They’re actually learning from the local economy, the local companies that — if the students want to when they graduate go into there — they actually already have the relationships built with the companies that are actually doing the work in our valley,” he said, describing how trade partners donate materials and time to teach the class skills like how to wire the house.
And it’s not just general contractors who want to contribute to this effort, Gibson said. It’s also members of the community who recognize how the class could benefit them.
“Right now, all of us are sitting in an office that was constructed by tradespeople,” he said. “It was architected by architects. It was engineered by engineers. It was reviewed by city planners and city officials to make sure that it can be built and constructed the way it is built and constructed. And all of those people (affect) how we do business today.”
Bay Law Injury Attorneys partnered with the Shop Class to fund this year’s home up front, so it could be donated to a veteran experiencing housing instability in the fall.
Deniz Bayramoglu, managing attorney at Bay Law, said the firm had two main target areas when giving back to the community: children and veterans. Its sponsorship of the Shop Class affects both.
“They can take this house that was built by the students and really turn it into a home and become a fruitful member of the community,” Bayramoglu said. “Because as we can get more and more people back onto their feet, especially people that have served our country, we can then elevate them so that they, in turn, elevate the community.”
This is the program’s third year, its second house and its first home to be donated to a veteran. Next year, Gibson said, he plans on the program producing three houses, which will be either sold or donated, depending on sponsorships.
The money from houses that are sold can fund the next year’s class and then some, so the program can continue to grow and ultimately become self-sustaining, Gibson said.
The home built this year, purchased by Bay Law, will be donated on Veterans Day.
To know that they built a house that will be provided to someone who needs it will last with students forever, Gibson said.
“I think they finally understood the gravity of that once the wall started going up and they started seeing the cabinets in there and the paint and the finishes, and they’re walking through it at graduation,” he said. “They’re like, ‘We actually built this and this is going to be somebody’s home.’ ”
The program opens students’ eyes to what’s possible, Gibson said, including apprenticeships and skilled trades that could lead them to a career with a six-figure income. The trades can “take you to wherever you want,” he said.
“We love helping the youth understand that and just introduce them to really what’s out there,” he said. “So that’s the purpose of the Shop Class.”
Students absolutely love it, Gibson said, and are excited about learning how to “create something from nothing.”
Tenaya Brown had been planning to go into construction, so when the Shop Class came to her school — Lake Mead Christian Academy — she saw it as the perfect opportunity to kick-start what she wanted to do in the future.
“It has helped me and shaped my idea of what I want to do for a living,” said Brown, who reflected on how building the tiny home allowed her to learn a little bit of every trade. “So it was just super helpful and a good opportunity that I’m blessed to have.”
Brown knew she wanted to pursue a career in construction before entering the Shop Class, but through the program she was able to understand each trade and realized she would want to explore more, specifically framing and electrical.
One of her favorite parts of helping to construct the home was watching a “big pile of wood” turn into the foundation of the house. It was cool to see it grow from there with insulation, plumbing and more, she said.
“Even if you don’t want to go into construction, it’s super helpful,” she said. “There was even a point throughout the year where I had to rewire a light in my kitchen, and I knew how to do that because of Shop Class, so it was just super helpful. In the real world, when you grow up — whatever you want to do — you still have all that knowledge in the back of your pocket that you can use for whatever you want.”
Skilled trades have often been portrayed as a second, third or final opportunity for a job, said Gibson, who wants to restore the sector’s prestige.
“If you look out in this valley, we have some of the most unique structures in the world, just on the Vegas Strip, and those were all built by true professionals,” he said. “Almost everything that’s really built at a high level is built by true professionals, and so we want to be able to bring that prestige back and teach the next generation that this is a great first opportunity instead of a last resort.”
Gibson and Bayramoglu discussed the program’s potential for growth, both in terms of more homes being built each year in Las Vegas, and about expansion into other regions and states.
“You have local students building homes, learning a skill set, but working with local companies as sponsors, building local communities for people in the community,” Gibson said. “That is purely the definition of a win-win-win situation.”