{"id":158215,"date":"2022-09-22T03:42:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T08:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=158215"},"modified":"2022-09-23T03:42:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T08:42:46","slug":"area-students-get-hands-on-experience-with-skilled-trades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2022\/09\/22\/area-students-get-hands-on-experience-with-skilled-trades\/","title":{"rendered":"Students get experience with skilled trades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approximately 300 freshmen and sophomore students from seven local school districts received hands-on experience in the various building trades during Day No. 1 of the Build Your Future 2022 event, held at the Van Wert County Fairgrounds on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second annual event, which continues today for about 300 more students, is a partnership between local employers, Vantage Career Center, the Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation and Ohio Means Jobs. Alexander & Bebout President Sara Zura was a driving force behind the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Masonry, welding, carpentry and concrete work were just some of trades area freshmen and sophomores learned about on Wednesday. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal is to introduce students to the trades, so we have five trades from Vantage here, carpentry, construction, welding, industrial mechanics and electricity, and we have partnered with the instructors and students to really give a hands-on experience,\u201d Zura explained. \u201cWe want to get them interested in the trades and show them the local opportunities that are available for careers and that maybe they don\u2019t have to go to college to have a successful career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. over the two day period, students from Van Wert, Crestview and Lincolnview, along with Delphos Jefferson and Delphos St. John\u2019s, Parkway and Wayne Trace had the chance learn to a bit about wiring lightbulbs, operating various pieces of construction equipment, drill through concrete, using tools to frame walls, HVAC, welding and more inside and outside of three buildings at the fairgrounds. Once rain moved later in the morning, some of the stations were pushed inside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow many kids get the opportunity to run an excavator, frame a wall, run a welder, lay out masonry or pour concrete?\u201d Zura said during the event. \u201cDoing it as freshmen and sophomores gives us the opportunity to put them at Vantage and then come to the local employers here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fast paced environment called for students to move from station to seven every seven minutes, and each student had to participate at each trade station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Van Wert Workforce Development Manager Jane Schmid noted for many of the students in attendance, it\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve been exposed to the various trades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of these kids are from a farm and have welded or whatever but others, not so much,\u201d Schmid said. \u201cWhat we do is we give all the kids a survey to fill out and we want them to tell us what their top five activities were out of the 20 here, and we want them to tell us if they\u2019re thinking more about the construction trade than before. We received feedback and what we found that Van Wert City Schools, the biggest school in the mix, 47 percent of the kids said they were thinking about skilled trades when they hadn\u2019t prior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students tried their hand at threading the needle with heavy equipment. Scott Truxell photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to fill the pipeline,\u201d she continued. \u201cIn 2021 there were 430,000 more construction trade jobs open than the prior year and it\u2019s only going to get worse. Bob used to be plumber and now he\u2019s retiring, Bob Jr. learned the trade coming up through the ranks but we don\u2019t have that any more. They can start out at $60,000-$65,000 and you can learn while the sky is the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vantage Career Center Superintendent Rick Turner local businesses are always concerned about recruiting a good workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis event showcases their needs, so it\u2019s a win-win for everyone,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build Your Future grew from the three Van Wert County schools last year to seven this year and Schmid said it\u2019s possible future events will grow to include all 13 Vantage Career Center member schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also thanked the local employers who took time to participate in the event, including set up time on Monday, plus three hours of instruction Wednesday and today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey spent a lot of man hours and money just making this happen and so it\u2019s worth it to them \u2013 it\u2019s a marketing effort, it\u2019s filling the pipeline,\u201d Schmid stated. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge collaborative. It\u2019s not only Vantage, it\u2019s Alexander & Bebout, Ayers Mechanical, All Temp Refrigeration, Moorman & Overholt Electric, National Door and Trim, Metzger Masonry, and the fair board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio Means Jobs provided each student with a 25 foot tape measure and Fastenal donated earplugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Approximately 300 freshmen and sophomore students from seven local school districts received hands-on experience in the various building trades during Day No. 1 of the Build Your Future 2022 event, held at the Van Wert County Fairgrounds on Wednesday. The second annual event, which continues today for about 300 more students, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 20:08:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158215"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158278,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158215\/revisions\/158278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}