Inland Northwest Associated General Contractors will host a Construction Career Day for local high school students at the Spokane Fairgrounds.
SPOKANE, Wash. — You might see plenty of big trucks and excavators at the Spokane County Fairgrounds. That’s because Inland Northwest Associated General Contractors is hosting a construction career day for local high school students.
1,200 local high school students had the opportunity to operate and see a variety of construction equipment up close.
As Spokane County and northern Idaho’s infrastructure continues to develop, AGC said contractors want to give students early exposure to viable career paths.
“Spokane’s construction industry is a huge industry, especially because it’s growing so fast right now,” said Workforce Development Director Jessica Moody. Therefore, we want to involve students early on. ”
High school students in the area say construction has made them aware of how the world around them has been constructed.
“It’s huge. Everywhere you drive, there’s construction going on, especially this summer and fall, but it’s all done,” said Jacob Valenti, a student at Lewis and Clark High School.
From bulldozers to rollers to excavators, Construction Career Day gives students the opportunity to get out of the classroom and gain real-world, hands-on experience.
“It’s pretty cool to be able to operate all of this equipment that collectively costs millions of dollars,” said 11th grader Grant Gustafson. Most of the time, especially at our age, we don’t have access to something like this. ”
Students like Grant take engineering and CTE courses at Lewis & Clark High School, where high school curricula emphasize careers such as construction, he said.
He told KREM that he hopes to own his own construction business and become financially free.
AGC says students now connect with contractors during construction days, making job hunting less scary by the time they graduate high school.
“We bring kids out here, get on equipment, give them first experiences,” said Mike Ankney, Inland Northwest AGC’s director of apprenticeships. “We bring a lot of future business owners into our apprenticeship program. I sent him there,” he said.
Moody said there is little debt required to start a career path, which is why more students are looking for jobs in the industry.
Cole Buffas, a senior at Lewis & Clark High School, said he wants to attend Washington State University to study construction management. He argued that events like this give industry players the opportunity to ask important questions.
“I think it gives me a better understanding of what I want to do in the future,” Buffs says.
Construction Career Day runs through Oct. 31 at the Spokane County Fairgrounds and Expo Center from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
