GLADSTONE, Mich. (WZMQ) – This summer, 26 U.P. high schoolers are getting firsthand experience in the trades and jumpstarting their careers.
The Upper Peninsula Construction Council’s (UPCC) Building Trades Summer Camp gives students six weeks to try out different types of work.
“We’ve operated cranes, excavators, boiler making, iron workers, concrete, sheet metal workers, electrical,” said Landon Pepin, who will be a sophomore at Gladstone High School this fall. “I’ve done it all, basically.”
“We’ve been learning a lot of cool stuff,” added fellow Gladstone High School sophomore Hayden Larson. “It’s been really fun.”
Through the camp’s “earn and learn” system, students receive $13.00 an hour for their work. They also get to see what those jobs really look like in their communities.
“We always do a field trip with our students,” explained UPCC Executive Director Mike Smith. “This week, we’ll be going to the Renegade solar project over in Rock, which is cool. We get to see something that’s physically under construction. We’ve been with Enbridge, we’ve been with Billerud, we were with Payne & Dolan. Students work Monday through Thursday, and then on Friday, they get to go see some of the places that we actually do work.”
On Tuesday, students took a short but productive break from their job sites. They gathered in Gladstone for a networking lunch with local employers.
“I just like talking to the professionals and learning all the cool things that they did,” Hayden said of the experience.
Professionals discussed their jobs in sheet metal working, carpentry, brick laying, electrical work, and other trades. For students, it was a chance to ask questions, collect business cards, and build relationships.
“We don’t always remember names, but quite often we remember faces,” Smith said. “If we can sit down and break bread with a group of students, that might trigger something—‘Oh, I remember you. Didn’t you go through the summer camp?’—and they’ll make an application to become an apprentice.”
In the camp’s fourth year, the Construction Council has seen it help students get to that next level.
“We have students that are in all the trades right now that actually have made that transition,” said Smith. “We’re in the Operating Engineers Local 324 Hall today, and one of our inaugural students is literally working with heavy machinery right now, going through his apprenticeship program. He started right here at the summer camp.”
With 40% of tradespeople being eligible to retire in the next five to seven years, Smith says that is a key component in keeping these industries well-staffed and in good hands.
“Our number one export from the U.P. is 18- to 25-year-olds,” he said. “We’ve got great public education systems, great community colleges, great universities, and then they’re all going somewhere else. We want them to know that there is a family-sustaining career right here in the U.P.”
For more information on the UPCC Building Trades Summer Camp, click here.
