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While construction may not be the average teenager's idea of fun, since 15-year-old Jarrett Zacharko heard a construction competition is coming to Etobicoke, he can't wait for his chance to try his hand at it.

Inspired by a family friend in the construction industry, Zacharko hopes one day to earn a degree in Civil Engineering. He is currently in the middle of renovating his bedroom and building himself a new desk that he designed.

Zacharko likes the nuts-and-bolts nature of the upcoming competition and is looking forward to a chance to test his skills against other students.

"Hands on is way for me," he said proudly.

Lakeshore CI will host the Toronto Construction Challenge on Feb. 7. The competition, presented by Destination ImagiNation and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, is open to teams of five to seven students from middle or high school. Each team must also have one adult coach. Teams can come from anywhere across the city and can register for $100. Three tasks over the day-long event will challenge students' creative problem-solving skills.

Michele Davies, a business consultant and strategic planning teacher at Humber College, is helping to organize the challenge. She said she sees a need for more students to take up trades and look at the construction sector as an exciting field of employment. She hopes that the competition will give other students the same inspiration that Zacharko has found.

"Construction isn't about digging a hole," Davies said. "Whatever your skills and abilities are you can make a very interesting career (in the field)."

The first two tasks will cover infrastructure design and the design and manufacture of a device to perform a specific function, or solve a problem. The third will focus on maintenance and service technology. Davies hopes that each task will give students a feel for the variety of opportunities in the industry.

"It combines the art of design and the science of manufacturing and then the application and project planning it takes to actually make a project work," she said.

While 15 challenges are planned across the U.S., the Toronto challenge is the only one in Canada. Judges will score the teams on creativity and teamwork as well as the successful completion of each task. Two to four of the top teams from the Toronto challenge will have the opportunity to compete in Knoxville, Tenn., at the North American Championships in May. The championship prizes have not been finalized for this year, but last year's sponsors awarded each student on the winning team $2,500 and a laptop computer.

Irene Mercuri, the head of special education at Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School, said many of her students have expressed interest in the event. She expects to have at least two teams signed up shortly. She said students with a strong interest in physics, and students "who like to work with their hands, who like to build (and) who like to design," seem to enjoy the challenge.

In the meantime, Zacharko is not too concerned about getting ready for the competition. He only needs to find one more friend for a team of five, and still has plenty of work to finish in his bedroom.

"I'm doing drywall this week," he said.

Visit www.constructionchallenge.com for more information about the challenge and how to participate.