CareerForce Spotlight: South Central Construction Trades Boot Camp
Leading CareerForce partner South Central WorkForce Council listened to student feedback and adapted a popular career exploration opportunity to meet the needs of local high school and adult learners. Beginning in 2024, the South Central Construction Trades Boot Camp started being held once a month during the school year on early dismissal days. This change was made to address the transportation challenges students faced when the camp was previously held during the summer months.
The camp is a partnership between the local trade unions, South Central WorkForce Council, South Central Service Cooperative, Adult Basic Education and Mankato Area Public Schools. The two-and-a-half hour long, hands-on sessions are free to students and are hosted in a shop classroom at the Lincoln Community Center in Mankato. Students from Central High School, which is onsite, are welcomed and other students from Mankato East and Mankato West high schools are transported to attend.
Each month, representatives from a construction trade union guide students through an interactive project relevant to their field of work. Before starting the project, students are provided with information about the trade, career paths available, and apprenticeships and training offered. The 2024 schedule featured carpenters in January, electricians in February, insulators in March, millwrights in April and laborers and cement masons in May. Students could attend as many of the sessions as they liked. Alternative learning students earned credit for high school graduation by attending all sessions.
To provide students with the opportunity to see the “full picture” of what a training facility looks like, a field trip to the Operating Engineers Local 49 Training Center was offered to multiple local schools during 2024. A total of 37 students from six high schools traveled to Hinkley, where students were given a safety training, information about their Operator Engineer Pathway program, Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) insight, a brief tour of the 400-acre training space and the opportunity to operate equipment under the supervision of members of the union.
Adult Basic Education (ABE) learners in the district were also able to participate. Union trade representatives offered ABE sessions in the morning for adult learners on the same days they held sessions for high school students in the afternoons. The adult learners continuously showed interest from month-to-month with a steady number of participants attending the sessions. One ABE instructor mentioned, “I’m super impressed with the engaging staff from the trades. They make the session fun and full of energy while being supportive and encouraging to students. These sessions have been a confidence builder for students.” It was requested by adult learners and staff that the representatives in the union construction trades return to provide more information about training and apprenticeships. The ABE instructors toured the carpenters’ training center to gain a better understanding of the training and process to enter a trade to better educate adult learners about these career opportunities.
During the previous school year, 10 high school students and 25 adult learners participated in at least one boot camp session, with five high school students and five adult learners participating in all five of the sessions. Of those participating in at least one session, 80% of the high school students and 100% of the adult learners were female or students of color.
It's important to prepare more people for construction trades and ensure there is a pipeline for local high school students and adult learners to prepare for and access good paying jobs in the field in south central and southwest Minnesota. The construction trades are challenged with workforce shortages and an aging workforce during the same time that construction industry jobs are projected to grow 2.6 times faster than the overall regional economy from 2022-2032. When construction trades don’t have enough workers, their capacity is limited for potential projects and at times they need to recruit union members from other states to fill their workforce needs. The career exploration opportunities offered through this partnership in the South Central Construction Trades Boot Camp help create awareness for students, parents, school counselors, career and technical education and job seekers to fill the worker pipeline.
Students who participate in the South Central Construction Trades Boot Camp walk away with skills such as identifying tools and equipment, acknowledging the importance of safety and personal protective equipment (PPE), problem solving, the confidence to ask for help and get their questions answered, teamwork, precision, and attention to detail as well as other essential employability skills. These skills are valuable on their resume no matter the career path they take.
The South Central Construction Trades Partnership holds regular meetings to explore the expansion of Boot Camp and promote opportunities for students, families, school professionals and more to learn about union trades. Since each school has unique needs and goals for its students, the partnership aims to introduce the Boot Camp concept while ensuring it can be tailored to meet the specific requirements of each school it expands to. Sessions will continue in a similar format with Mankato Area Public Schools and Mankato ABE. The partnership is connecting with two additional school districts regarding possible expansion of boot camp sessions in the 2024-2025 academic year.
- To see the South Central Trades Boot Camp in action, you can watch short videos on YouTube.
- To find out about career exploration opportunities in your part of Minnesota, contact staff at a CareerForce location near you.
