The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008

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Construction Career Day introduces 500 students to careers in the industry STORY AND PHOTOS BY EOWYN LEMAY IVEY It’s not just that we’re getting older that these workers look so young. The boy at the wheel of the big rig is nowhere near 16, and the girl with the welding helmet and cutting torch is still in high school. These two were among hundreds of students getting to test drive construction at the new-to-Alaska event. Construction companies, labor unions and state and school district groups introduced 500 high school students to hard hats, heavy equipment and hammers at the Construction Career Day at the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer April 30. The goal: get today’s youth excited about a future in construction trades by letting them get their hands a little dirty. “Anytime you get to really try it, it becomes more real. You see more possibilities,” said Mari Jo Parks, event coordinator. Plans and funding for the career day were kicked off by a federal Department of Transportation grant, but Parks and others say the industry really made it possible. Partners included the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, Alaska Railroad Corp., Alaska Department of Labor, the National Association of Women in Construction, Alaska Ironworkers Training Center, Wilder Construction and Alaska Teamsters, to name just a few of the many. “The industry has really been driving this,” agreed Mike Shiffer with Alaska Department of Labor. The state needs approximately 1,000 new construction workers each year, he said, and that doesn’t include the potential for a gas line going in. At the same time, vocational programs in public schools have declined during the past few decades. The industry has stepped in to fill this void. Colony High School student Ashley Placzek, left, gets some advice from first-year apprentice Michael Yewell as she cuts metal with a torch. Placzek said she would like to become an aviation mechanic. Other career fairs in Alaska offer students a glimpse at construction trades. What made this day different, and hopefully more inspiring, were the hands-on activities. Outside Raven Hall, students climbed on heavy equipment and cut and welded metal. Inside the building, stations allowed young people to try their hands at hammering, soldering, painting and even surveying. This last was Grace Amundsen’s favorite. She is a junior at Service High School who is interested in a construction career. “There’s a lot more here than I thought there would be,” she said. Her friend, sophomore Charlene Harris, said she was expecting “millions” of boring presentations and a string of booths to walk through. The event was a pleasant surprise. “We get to play with the big boy toys,” she said with a grin. Nearby, Dimond High student Leonard Dauphin was talking concrete with Kevin Norton of Anchorage Sand & Service High School students Grace Amundsen and Charlene Harris try out the view from the heavy equipment at the Alaska Construction Career Day in April. They said they were surprised how many handson activities were available.
Gravel. They were discussing a recent cable television program that looked at a company’s worst nightmare – a truck full of hardened concrete. No way around it, Norton said. You’ve got to put some elbow grease into it. “I’ve chipped out numerous trucks. But hey, you get paid by the hour,” he joked with Dauphin. Norton put students on the hot seat, asking them what kind of truck he was standing next to. No, he would say again and again, it’s not a cement truck. Cement is to concrete what flour is to bread, and that, he said, is a concrete truck. Like many of the tradespeople at the event, Norton seemed to have a natural way with the young people. But he’s an old hand. For years he has been teaching sixth-graders in the Anchorage School District through a business partnership. He seems to enjoy a back-and-forth camaraderie with students, but he also has ulterior motives. “We are having a really difficult time forming our crews,” Norton said. The average age of a construction worker is 47, he said, and, by middle school, young people are already eliminating construction trades from their lists of possibilities. “I tell them, some of you might not be destined for construction, and that’s all right,” he said. But for at least a few, it is a perfect fit. “We all shine in a different light,” he said. Colony High student Ashley Placzek seemed to shine in that light. She handled a cutting torch with ease outside Raven Hall and said she wants to go on to be an aviation mechanic. She and the other students who came through the station impressed Michael Yewell, a first-year apprentice who was instructing the torch cutting. He said the teenagers were eager and paying attention even while they were standing in the long line waiting their turn. And a few of the students went above and beyond in taking advantage of the opportunities the career day offered. “I got three jobs lined up today,” said Palmer High senior David Needham, who hopes to someday be a plumber or do mechanical work on the North Slope. He said a series of family and friend connections, combined with the trade representatives at the fair, allowed him to get three apprenticeship possi-
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The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008

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