A conventional four-year college experience is not for every young man who graduates high school, said Brian Black, the co-founder of Harmel Academy of the Trades in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “It’s been either you go onto a conventional college, the military, or you don’t,” said Black, the general manager of Grand River Builders, who is an experienced trainer and advocate for the trades. Harmel Students at their Intro to Welding class taught by Father Dominic Couturier. Courtesy photo Seeing a need for post-secondary training, education and formation for young men interested in learning a trade, Black and Ryan Pohl, a journeyman machinist and founder of Praeco Skills, LLC, co-founded Harmel Academy in 2020. Hosted on the campus of Kuyper College, Harmel students live together in dedicated dormitory floors and receive technical instruction in trades such as computer aided drafting, machine repair, electronics, pneumatics and electrical rigging. Harmel’s students also learn about the humanities, with a heavy focus on Catholic social teaching. The school is named for Léon Harmel (1829-1915), a French Catholic industrialist who provided his factory workers with just wages, safe working conditions, retirement benefits and health care in a time of extreme worker exploitation. Harmel became a close friend and associate of Pope Leo XIII, who wrote the Rerum Novarum, the 1891 seminal document on Catholic social teaching.
Harmel Academy teaches the trades with a focus on faith – Our Sunday Visitor
Harmel Academy teaches the trades with a focus on faith – Our Sunday Visitor
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