As part of a five-day course put on by Junior Achievement, local students grades nine through 12 visited Chippewa Valley Technical College’s Transportation Education Center and Energy Education Center as part of the Trade, Transportation and STEM Camp.
With the Transportation Education Center being a relatively newer facility for CVTC, so too is JA’s new camp which finished up its first week last Friday, July 26. Alisha Klemish, Northwest Regional Education Manager for JA, said the camp was sponsored by Markquart Motors, who wanted to bring awareness to more trade fields.
“We decided to meet with CVTC to discuss the opportunity of bringing a camp to their location, as we do with our food truck camp,” said Klemish. “We thought, why not do an auto-type, trades-type camp there? Then it started in the works of where we were going to be at the Transportation Education Center at CVTC for a few days as well as the Manufacturing Education Center, and then we came up with a lesson plan to have them tour and do hands-on activities through different areas and career fields.”
While touring the campus and facilities, students also got hands-on experiences in fields pertaining to gas and diesel vehicles, HVAC, small engine, body repair and body collision, welding in the manufacturing lab and transportational fields like semi truck driving.
“They got to see tons of different career fields, and then we incorporated our Junior Achievement lessons in there to help them search for what career they want to do when they grow up,” said Klemish.
"Really, it’s trying to plant those seeds of interest for students that may be non-traditional to the industry or the areas,” said Adam Wehling, dean of Agriculture, Energy, Construction and Transportation. “So when we work with Junior Achievement, that really was in alignment for helping to get students interested in and exposed to these types of careers that they might not do.”
While looking, students also took part in a lesson on resumes and job interviews to help them prepare to enter a career field.
The camp works with students alongside many other camps which JA typically runs through the summer while school is out, like Food Truck Camp. Interestingly, both of the camps offer an experience through a partnership between JA and CVTC to give students a chance to see potential career pathways.
“A lot of times, it starts with groups like Junior Achievement reaching out and saying, ‘Hey we would like to do some joint programming or joint opportunities,’" explained Wehling.
But on top of the program giving opportunities to kids, Wehling also explained that it highlights a growing need for workers in industries like the ones highlighted at their facilities.
"When we look at the programming that we offer here at CVTC, I am not sure if everybody is aware that in order for us to offer training in something, we have to verify and validate job demand for that," he said. "If we are going to offer a program, I need to get approval at the state level and it has to have local job data that supports us doing programs and we have to have employers that say ‘yes, we would hire these people based on the curriculum you are developing.’"
Wehling said that Western Wisconsin has seen a bubble of growth that is above average over national trends which is in part because of good economical developments and growth fueled by skilled workers. As they want to continue that trend, exposing students to potential opportunities which will help grow the local economy is one way of working towards that future.
But apart from being a good thing for the community, Klemish said these opportunities also pose as a fun positive for students looking at their future.
“We want to be able to bring opportunities to the students in the northwest area in different ways. As we do stuff all school year and all the schools in the area, but being able to do the camps is a fun and unique way of studying a field a little bit more and it is a fun experience for the kids to be able to do over the summer,” said Klemish. “It is interesting to watch their interests develop while they get to see all of these career pathways in the camp, which I think is a great way for Junior Achievement to be able to help students be able to see what they want to do when they grow up.”
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