Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Brandon Neddef, coordinator at the Pewaukee Training Center of the Carpenters Training Institute, took note of the questions high school students were asking at the MPS Skilled Trades and Technical Career Fair. Neddef, representing one of the 60 trades and companies at the fair, said students’ main questions weren’t about pay, even though a tantalizing flyer on the vendor’s table said it could be as high as $77 an hour.
Instead, they wanted to know what the work involved and how they would prepare for it.
To Erin Cherney — youth apprenticeship coordinator in MPS’s Department of College and Career Readiness, which organizes the fair — students’ asking the right questions showed that teachers had prepared them for their day at the fair. The annual fair was October 9, 2024, at Milwaukee Tool offices downtown.
About 600 MPS students from 23 high schools attended the career fair, which sprawled across the first floor of Milwaukee Tool, at 551 N. 5th St. The event was open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
Students were able to explore career paths that included construction trades, manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology. Professions such as law enforcement and firefighting also drew strong interest; crowds of students gathered at tables staffed by the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.
Other career paths students explored included sustainable energy, hospitality and tourism, engineering, and automotive. Vendors often had multiple representatives on hand to answer students’ questions; one vendor, the Western Great Lakes Finishing Institute, used virtual reality to let students see what painting on a large scale was like.
One student who slipped on the VR headset said that the finishing trades weren’t careers he had even thought of but that he was open to anything — a view that other high schoolers echoed while exploring options new to them at the career fair.
The fair was one of many events to help MPS students explore careers and graduate prepared for college, technical school, military service, or the world of work.