Build Your Future Day introduces PHMS students to opportunities in skilled trade fields

May 24—PENDLETON — More than a year after an official end to the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, several industries are adjusting to worker shortages by recruiting potential employees earlier in their educational paths.

The scarcity of workers is particularly pronounced in the construction industry, which according to an estimate by Associated Builders and Contractors, a national trade association, will need to attract more than half a million workers above the pace of normal hiring to meet demand this year.

"I think we have created a situation where people who aren't in trades don't always understand or respect that career," said Karen Shreves, vice president of marketing and sales at Midwest Remodeling Services. "I think even students who aren't going to go that direction need to understand, this is a career. It has value."

That thinking has guided Shreves and her sister, Beth Carey, in customizing lessons and other content that filled a day for nearly 350 seventh grade students at Pendleton Heights Middle School this week.

Build Your Future, a pilot program backed by the Indiana Construction Roundtable, provided materials and learning modules for nearly 60 volunteers to help students complete three projects of their choice Wednesday. Each project — concrete pouring, string art, and building a birdhouse, a miniature bridge or a picnic table — was designed to inform them about careers in residential and commercial construction.

"Specifically with kids going to the high school, we start talking about graduation pathways," said Ashley Gustin, assistant principal at Pendleton Heights Middle School. "There's an immediate need at the middle school level to open those doors and get kids experience through some of those different pathways."

Gustin said that when Shreves and Carey approached middle school administrators with the idea of a full day of construction trade-related activities, buy-in came quickly.

"They ran curriculum ideas past us on the activities that the students would be doing," she said. "It talks about salaries, the qualifications for those careers, education opportunities and different jobs in the particular fields. They did a fantastic job of laying it all out."

Shreves and Carey, who serves as Midwest Remodeling's CEO, said they each have a personal stake in bringing a day of trade-related activities to the middle school. Shreves said her 17-year-old son had struggles with what she termed "traditional learning experiences" before beginning to do small jobs for neighbors in his early teens. His experience underscored a principle Shreves said has been lost in an emphasis on college preparation over the past several decades.

"Career readiness used to be the standard coming out of high school, and we've stopped that being the standard, and we want to bring that back," Shreves said. "We want students to know, career readiness out of high school is completely doable, and you can walk right into a fantastic career at 18 years old."

For local business leaders, a population of students fully informed about potential career choices — even in middle school — means the area's workforce will be more fully prepared to step into jobs earlier, which they believe will keep the local economy on a healthy trajectory of growth.

"We've seen study after study that shows kids are making career-based decisions as early as third grade," said Clayton Whitson, president and CEO of the Madison County Chamber of Commerce. "It's important to make sure our kids know all the amazing things they can do right here without having to leave town."

Shreves and Carey said they hope Wednesday's program, as a pilot, will be replicated at middle schools across the state. They spent the day taking notes and will survey both volunteers and teachers to see what adjustments can be made before meeting again with representatives from Build Your Future Indiana, who will share the program with other districts.

"We're going mostly blind," said Carey, "so we'll get survey results and tweak it from there."

Follow Andy Knight on Twitter @Andrew_J_Knight, or call 765-640-4809.