Life after high school is a tree with many branches: Higher education? Career track? Trades? Clear Creek students were offered a small taste of them all at career day in Evergreen.
The high school lunchroom morphed into a sea of recruiters with tables filled with educational materials, pamphlets and lots of swag.
Students at Clear Creek High School took their time moving from one solicitor table to the next, often with a small group of friends by their side, listening to pitches from employers and educators about taking the next step in adulthood.
“Finding things out and expanding my knowledge is great, and there are all these colleges out here,” sophomore Merrell Harvey said.
Career Connections Coordinator Dacia Kelly organized the career fair again this year with student input and impact in mind.
For the first time, Kelly invited and orchestrated at least eight colleges/universities from across the country to send representatives to encourage students to consider their institution for higher learning.
Attendees included Kansas State, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Oklahoma State University, Knox College and the University of Wyoming.
“It gives you a direct opportunity to speak with the people from the schools, which is refreshing instead of just trying to email back and forth,” sophomore McKenna Clark said.
At the same time, representatives from public and private organizations answered questions about the pros and cons of entering the job market after graduation.
At least 15 employers were actively looking to hire at the time, according to Kelly.
Representatives from law enforcement, including the Clear Creek County Sheriff and Idaho Springs Police, set up tables next to the Clear Creek County Fire Authority with bunker gear on display.
“Based on student feedback from last year, we combined the two because not every student wants to go to college, and not every student is looking for a job,” Kelly said.
Several trades, such as Local Electric out of Dumont, also set up shop to recruit students interested in joining the workforce out of high school.
Representative Joe Bardi recognized the difficulty of hiring young people who are interested in working with their hands despite the ever-increasing opportunities to learn a trade.
“We are trying to get the next generation of electricians, tradesmen and laborers on board,” Bardi said. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult but not impossible. I think there is still a real interest out there in people that want to work with their hands and go a different route.”
Much like college, four years of apprenticeship and on-the-job education can lead to a journeyman electrician license.
“With that kind of knowledge, licenses and experience,” Bardi said. “You would be in extremely high-demand, especially in a state like Colorado where it’s growing constantly.”
As a journeyman, it’s common to make more than $100,000 a year, Bardi added, and it’s a license someone can take anywhere or expand upon.
“That’s kind of the threshold, and you can go much further north from there. The cool thing about electrical is it’s a gateway into many other industries,” he said.
The post Game of Life plays out at Clear Creek High School appeared first on Colorado Community Media.
