JACKSONVILLE, Fla, – Local high school juniors and seniors had the opportunity to get first-hand construction experience thanks to an event meant to help them find their passion.
Transportation officials led the event at the Jacksonville Equestrian Center where more than 2,000 students got to learn about careers working for companies like JEA and the Florida Department of Transportation.
They learned about everything from road construction to bridge building — directly from the professionals who do it every day.
“They get out here and they see the intensity. They see the passion that the DOT crew has or that the equipment operator has for what they do and then they realize, wow, this means something. This impacts my community,” event organizer Sam Middleton, who works for FDOT, said.
Tyler Davies is a senior at Orange Park High School and attended the event for the second year in a row.
“This event has opened up some doors for me when it comes to water management or electrical management, builders associations and apprenticeships across the state. It’s kind of helped me narrow down that I want to pursue a degree in agriculture,” Davies said.
Half a million jobs are needed in construction nationwide, and that is just this year alone.
Organizers said they hope events like this will help address that shortage.
“You’ve got a lot of people leaving the workforce or they’ve decided they want to try something else and you’ve got to be able to replace that. What this is doing is showing that there is a place for you,” Middleton said.
Students get first-hand experience like riding in vehicles like a bucket truck to see what workers do on the job every single day.
“It’s just a good opportunity for everybody to get a taste of everything that everybody does and the trades,” Middleburg High School junior student Hunter Russell said.
After meeting with professionals at this event, Russell said he now knows he wants a career in electrical work.
“It does make a lot of difference because what you can’t read online you can go talk to people who experience first-hand day-to-day and it also opens up conversations and connections you can get through that business,” Russell said.
Connections can be life-changing, organizers said.