ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Students from across the Quad Cities area celebrated the 10th anniversary of National Apprenticeship Week at a trade career fair. Build the Quad Cities, an organization consisting of labor contractors and unions, hosted the event with 41 local vendors. The group promotes union trades in schools.
"We're trying to break out of the stereotype, you know, hammers and shovels," Build the Quad Cities Chairman Brad Treiber said. “There's a lot of technology involved in the construction trade.”
Approximately 1,000 students from 39 schools walked through the Quad Cities Area Expo Center. One innovative booth included virtual Helm Group's reality technology. The gadget allows students to see a virtual layout of a mechanical room before it is built.
"It helps accelerate schedules," Helm Group's Scott Nobis said. "It helps an owner know what they are going to get before they get it.”
In a world of iPads and iPhones, employers said the electronic background can give young adults an advantage.
"They are very tech-savvy," Nobis said. "They can come into something like this and they catch on really quick”
Pheonix Corporation's Clint Kesinger said the connection of labor and technology drew him to his role.
"It's just a video game that you can make happen in reality," he said. "It's a great way to mesh the two together."
At the career fair, Kesinger and his coworkers demonstrated the GPS technology used to establish storm drainage for civil projects. He said they start with paper blueprints, turn it into a three-dimensional file and replicate what should happen virtually.
"So, we no longer have to pull tape and strings to find our location in depth," he said. "It's technology married in with the real world."
Josh Uhlry is a senior at Cambridge High School. He said he is interested in a career where he can operate heavy machinery.
"He was telling me how you can just upload a file to a dozer, and you don’t have to do the calculations it does it all for you," Uhlry said, "It definitely makes your life a lot easier."
The state of Illinois reports they have over 20,000 active registered apprentices from more than 1,600 employers. The state of Iowa has almost 10,000 active apprentices.
"We need to reach out to those younger generations to show them the opportunities they have," Treiber said.