Picking a career track for high school can be difficult for eighth-graders as many have no idea what they want to pursue.
Quentin Shirley, of New Hope Middle School, might have gotten the inspiration he needed on Wednesday as he operated a bulldozer simulator inside the atrium at East Mississippi Community College Communiversity.
“It was fire,” Shirley said after the experience, using the trendy jargon of his generation. “I didn’t know they had something like this, but it’s really cool to see.”
He was one of more than 2,000 area eighth-graders who will to engage with the FORGE Foundation’s three-day interactive skilled trades expo, where they will see interacted with exhibits ranging from an excavator and bulldozer simulator, a “nail bar” where students drove nails into wood and a booth where students learned how to lay brick, among others.
Founded in 2018 as Family Organizations Recruiting Great Employees to represent its five founding members — Burns Dirt, McCrary-West Construction, Graham Roofing, APAC and West Brothers Construction — FORGE has expanded its membership to include other area businesses, even ones that aren’t family-owned, such as PACCAR.
Businesses within FORGE help each other and work together on recruiting the next generation of skilled laborers.
Macaulay Whitaker, vice president of talent and culture with Burns Dirt, said it is important for children of all ages to know what career opportunities are out there and what the careers entail even if the students don’t intend to go into the skilled trades workforce.
“This is not just for (career and technical education) students,” Whitaker said. “We want these kids who are interested in skilled trades, but we also want every single student to have exposure to skilled trades. If they’re not going to pursue it as a career, they can still see and understand the importance of skilled trades in their lives. If you drive on a road, if you turn on a faucet, if you just live your daily life, it has been made possible by people who have chosen skilled trades as a career.”
The FORGE Career Expo began Tuesday night for a regional business after hours, allowing adults to see the exhibits. Wednesday and today, eighth grade students learned about careers in skilled trades from more than 35 local employers.
New Hope Middle School student Angel Houston said she enjoyed the excavator simulator.
“It was fun,” Houston said. “I really couldn’t control it, but you can really see how you can do different things with an excavator. The expo is cool because you also get to see how things are made.”
The participation from local students has doubled since last year. Whitaker said it is important to allow eighth grade students specifically to see what all is out there before they get into high school and choose their own career track for high school and college.
“I just watched a student get on an excavator simulator and a bulldozer simulator, and then he walked outside and he was able to sit in a bulldozer and have real-life experience speaking to an operator who has a seasoned career in that,” Whitaker said. “Students can talk to a superintendent who makes six figures, and it really highlights that these are not just jobs that you do when you can’t do something else. These are careers that are worthy of pursuit.”
FORGE founding board member from McCrary-West Construction Katie McCrary echoed Whitaker’s sentiment and said the expo allows students to have a better grasp on their future.
“This expo is a great opportunity for students to learn how to link their current educational outlook to a skilled trade,” McCrary said. “We want students to learn not only how they can enter these fields but thrive and advance as experts and leaders in these industries. We want to showcase our community as pioneers in developing a workforce pipeline beginning in K-12 and continuing through to trade school, community college, or four-year programs.”
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