Construction Training and Education Center

We are currently building our new headquarters, the Construction Training and Education Center (CTEC), on Wilmington's East 7th Street peninsula. CTEC will be among the first LEED Gold buildings in Delaware.

Our headquarters has been located in the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard on Wilmington’s East Side since 1992. As demand for our construction training services increased, we outgrew our old shop and realized that our trainees would benefit from a shop environment that better fosters learning. We are building CTEC on the footprint of the building we used to occupy, with an innovative design to fully integrate classroom learning into the training day.

The design and construction the new facility implements and showcases green building technology, including a green roof, geothermal heat, solar panels and recycled building materials. Trainees have been involved in every aspect of the design and construction of CTEC from reviewing the architectural documents, milling and joining the recycled timber components, assembling the steel frame and finishing the interior.

CTEC is an unprecedented combination of old-world construction and cutting-edge, environmentally-sustainable concepts: 

  • - Recycled, reclaimed, and sustainable materials are used throughout the building;
  • - The distinctive rain screen siding panels are cut from pickle barrels at the Vlasic pickle plant in Millsboro, DE;
  • - The  floor joists in the office area are salvaged from the Jackson & Sharp yard across the street from the building;
  • - The north-facing sawtooth roof maximizes natural light in the work area, minimizing energy use;
  • - The planted "green" roof will sequester stormwater and minimize summer heat gain and winter heat loss;
  • - All roof & ground surfaces divert stormwater to a series of bioswales & cisterns - where it is available for re-use in the building - minimizing the amount of water entering the Christina River