Hands-on trades event shows high-paying careers in electrical work, construction and welding for ABQ teens

The sound of hammering filled the air as area high school students competed to see who could hammer a nail into a block of wood the fastest.

Next to the hammering competition — one of several hands-on activities Tuesday at the first Albuquerque Trades Event — Quemado High School sophomore Ruby Jacobs was using a welding simulator.

“I think this would be more of my Plan B, but I still think it’s really interesting and cool, and I would definitely consider welding,” said Jacobs, during the event hosted by Construction Industry Education Foundation at Expo New Mexico.

Jacobs has welded before and said the simulation was a little odd, because you don’t get the pushback like on an actual welder, but she found a lot of interesting information at the event.

CIEF is trying to show high schoolers what careers in electrical work, construction, welding and other trades are like. More than 500 students from 21 schools were expected to attend Tuesday’s event.

“We have students that need a direction,” said Brittany Alba, director of National Youth Programs for the CIEF. “They need someone and something that they can latch on to. A lot of the students are not college bound. A lot of the students work well with their hands. This type of event allows students and kids to see all that’s out there.”

The trades are hurting, Alba said, as workers retire without anyone to replace them.

“A whole generation was pushed to go to college, so we have this gap and are needing workers,” Alba said.

Outside, students gathered around a PNM demonstration of arcing electricity. A piece of a Mylar balloon caught fire as an electrical current jumped from one wire to the next. Students also explored the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions simulation bus.

Volcano Vista freshman Zak Silva drove a simulated Caterpillar backhoe. He began by adjusting the seat and fastening his seat belt in front of three screens that depicted a construction site. While the dirt was virtual, the controls were real.

Silva is not especially interested in construction, but he is interested in welding.

“I don’t really want to go to college, because I think it’s boring. I think this would be better because it’s exciting,” Silva said.

The simulation truck is part of a Department of Workforce Solutions project to recruit students into a pre-apprenticeship program. The program connects teens with businesses and pays the teenagers’ wages while the business trains them, with the goal of setting the kids up with a future occupation.

“These kids, this is our future, this is our workforce, and we’d be foolish not to invest in them,” said Tammy Gallegos-Burke, a Workforce Solutions area supervisor.

Back in the New Mexico Expo hall, high schoolers mixed mortar and stacked miniature cinder blocks with Abel Arana, field operations manager for Beaty Masonry Co., looking on. Arana was the first employee the company hired in 1985 and he worked his way up in the business. He’s traveled all over, working on buildings like schools and grocery stores.

“When I was a foreman, I used to enjoy it because I was building something. Now it’s kind of different because it’s working with people, but I love it,” Arana said.

The entire construction industry is suffering from labor shortages, according to Josh Beaty, Beaty Masonry chief operating officer.

“Every few years, it’s harder and harder to get people into construction trades and we really need the knowledge because the workforce, I think our average age is in the late 30s to mid-40s, and we’re just losing that knowledge and that expertise. ... Unless we start correcting it now, our whole industry and our infrastructure and our country is going to hurt,” Beaty said.

CIEF has hosted other trade events, with 14 scheduled this fall in four states.

“It’s such a lucrative career for these kids, and that’s what we really have to work on — shifting the perspective of the industry,” Alba said.

About 65% of students who attended CIEF’s past events are looking to enter the workforce after high school, and 87% said the events changed their trajectory, Alba said.

“We help build our communities,” Beaty said. “We’re building churches, we’re building schools, we’re building hospitals — all the things that we need as a society to continue on.”

Photos: Hundreds of students attend Albuquerque Trades Day at Expo New Mexico