SKILLED TRADE CAREER EXPO

Kelly Watson

During FORGE’s fifth annual Skilled Trade Career Expo, students had the unique opportunity to get an up-close and personal look at everything the construction industry has to offer. Over the course of two days, 23 schools from nine different counties participated by bringing their eighth-grade students to tour the expo at the East Mississippi Community College Communiversity Campus. Over 2,000 students were in attendance and able to participate in interactive booths ranging from operating heavy equipment and flight simulations to laying concrete and practicing drilling techniques. During the expo, students engaged with industry professionals and explored different career op- portunities related to the construction industry. FORGE’s goal with this expo was to plant a seed of interest within the students, so they consider skilled-trade jobs when choosing a future career path.

FORGE was founded in 2018 by a group of locally owned small businesses that were looking to invest in the workforce of tomorrow. The founders saw a desperate need for workers within skilled trade occupations, and instead of competing against one another, they decided to band together to work toward a solution. As Gary Beeland, executive at Build Mississippi, said, “Right now in Mississippi alone, there are approximately 100,000 jobs within various skilled-trade positions waiting to be filled, but no one to fill them.” FORGE’s primary approach to filling this need by growing the workforce has been to partner with local schools and CTE centers to create strong relationships and reshape perceptions surrounding the skilled trade industry.

FORGE is focusing on finding longterm solutions for the workforce shortage. They start with eighth-grade students because they know this age group is getting ready for high school and thinking of making their schedules. The idea is that the students come to the FORGE expo and realize they might be interested in carpentry, so they talk to their school counselors who can get them set up in the CTE classroom. If FORGE were to advertise to 10th or 11th graders, they would miss the opportunity to take advantage of everything CTE can offer students.

FORGE wants to pique their interest in skilled trade careers by “dressing it up and making it look pretty,” as Beeland said. For this reason, they try to keep all the booths as interactive and hands-on as possible. It’s not a typical career fair, where you browse from booth to booth, getting a piece of candy or a pen; instead, students get to climb aboard a mini excavator or try-out a VR headset simulation. The goal is to provide exposure to the industry, while making it look fun for students.

Melinda Lowe, executive director at FORGE, noted that this year there was,

Opposite page: The TVA Robot Dog, Spot, is used in situations to determine the safety of an area during a disaster or an emergency event. Top: Student learns the correct technique to lay bricks on a construction site. Above: Student participates in a simulation that replicates dirt work on a job site.

“Over $8 million in equipment present at the expo, which is double the footprint from last year.” The expo has grown in attendance and participation every year. “Every piece of equipment and every person working the booths are off the job site. So, these companies are providing not only time, energy, equipment and people; they are also losing dollars because all of that isn’t out there making money for them on a site. But our participants see the value of showing the next generation of perspective skilled tradesmen that this is an opportunity worth being interested in,” said Lowe. In addition to seeing the value of exposure, these businesses also see the importance of maintaining strong relationships with each other.

Haylie Quatrevingt from Waters Truck reinforced this statement by saying, “We all depend on each other to operate; our businesses are all interconnected in some way and our successes will only draw more businesses and economic success to the state, but they can’t bring more companies in if they don’t have enough workers.”

Due to the high success of this event, FORGE is looking to expand its reach. Rather than having students bussed in from long distances, they are hoping to replicate this event in different areas around the state so that more students will gain exposure of these skilled trade jobs.

FORGE has much to celebrate this year, because they are finally seeing the fruit of their labor. This is the fifth year that FORGE has held their expo, meaning the eighth graders that came to the inaugural expo are finally reaching the age where they can enter the workforce full-time. When asked what this means for them, Lowe responded, “All of our companies here today have either had interns or even workers who have participated in some form of FORGE event.

This year there was over $8 million worth of equipment present at the FORGE expo.

So, we are seeing how impactful the expo and our other events really are.”

The career expo is not the only way FORGE is garnering attention for and changing the perspective of skilled trade career paths. They also have a practice “Interview Day” that is hosted every spring where students can meet businesses and make connections while practicing their interviewing skills, and

FORGE offers financial literacy courses that can advise young people on smart ways to spend and invest their paychecks. Furthermore, they are trying to reach students as young as possible to shape a positive perspective of these career paths. FORGE has published two coloring books and bought bundles of construction related children’s books. They then will go out into schools to read these books to Pre-K- third grade students and give away the FORGE coloring books. Lowe said, “In doing this, we are building their knowledge of the field and piquing interest at a very young age.”

FORGE is eager to show students that they have more options than they might realize, and this career expo is just one way to do so.