Recruiting Begins at Any Age

Building Advantage Career Fair is an Overwhelming Success

On Tuesday, April 20, Building Advantage hosted its annual Career Fair, which hosted over 700 students and 28 schools. Building Advantage's goal is to introduce the benefits of a career in the union trades to area technical colleges, high schools and select groups of eight grade students through demonstrations provided by the individual construction trades Joint Apprenticeship Training Coordinators and Directors. This year's Career Fair was a highly successful and important event that showcased our ongoing commitment to workforce development.

Similar to previous years, students and instructors were able to participate in hands-on demonstrations provided by all the union construction trades, as well as three state government agencies, the AGC of Greater Milwaukee, Women in the Trades and BIG STEP.

This annual event represents the one time when every construction trade participates in a joint fair to demonstrate what a career in the trades is all about. The participants gave attendees the opportunity to weld, cut pipe for plumbing purposes, use the painting simulator, lay block and experience many other real-life applications a worker in the trades performs. The following trades participated in the event:

  • Bricklayers
  • Carpenters
  • Cement Finishers
  • Electrical Workers
  • Heat and Frost Insulators
  • Laborers
  • Operating Engineers
  • Painters
  • Plasterers
  • Glaziers
  • Plumbers
  • Sheet Metal Workers
  • Sprinklerfitters
  • Steamfitters

"This event is a shining example of the union's commitment to workforce development and positively promoting the union trades. More importantly, it shows what we can accomplish by working together," said Ken Kraemer, executive director of Building Advantage. "Knowing how dedicated the union trades are to recruiting and training the best individuals possible gives our contractors and end users peace of mind."

Not only did the Career Fair open the eyes of many students, but feedback from the instructors was overwhelmingly positive. Since budget cuts in local school systems often affect technical education, instructors from the high schools are grateful they can bring students to this event to get a feel for the trades.

Building Advantage and the Joint Apprenticeship Training Coordinators are already taking steps to make next year's Career Fair another success, and to help ensure the participants continue to meet the needs of the students and instructors.

Power of One Newsletters