Heavy Metal Summer Experience Lets Local Students Explore the Trades
With 40% of workers set to retire in the next 5-10 years and nationwide labor shortages, the construction industry is at a crossroads. Fortunately, SMACNA members are finding savvy ways to recruit eager new talent.
For six weeks this summer, 25 students in the Bay Area and Seattle participated in the Heavy Metal Summer Experience (HMSE) pilot program — a hands-on introduction to plumbing, piping and sheet metal for high school students interested in the building trades. The program was presented in partnership with Bay Area SMACNA, Western Allied Mechanical (WAM), SMACNA Western Washington, Hermanson and Construction for Change.
Dreamed up by SMACNA National President and WAM CEO Angie Simon in late 2020, the idea quickly became a reality. She budgeted $30,000 to get the program off the ground, but generous donations of boots, tools, PPE and more helped keep costs down.
Afternoon camps were held twice per week. Because participants would be working in a live fab shop, they started with an introduction to safety procedures. Throughout the camp, they learned all aspects of creating a project from start to finish by building a toolbox from sheet metal and a lamp out of copper pipe. A graduation ceremony was held at the conclusion of the experience, and some participants are in the process of joining the apprenticeship program at their respective JATCs.
“We’re already beginning to feel successful because we’re seeing their eyes open,” said Anthony Rogers, the plumbing general superintendent at Hermanson. “When they leave us, when they go back home, they’re going to have conversations with relatives who say, ‘Hey, where are you heading next in your life?’ and they’re able to speak with a confidence to that.”
“What’s not to love about this industry?” Simon added. “Besides the fact that it pays really, really well and you go away having no debt like you would in college, you get to build things with your hands, you work as a team and you get to see what you’ve created. It’s incredibly rewarding.”
HMSE leaders recruited interested students through local non-profits, like Junior Achievement, Boys and Girls Club and Live in Peace. Not only did targeting those organizations turn up a great crop of dedicated students, but it also helped further SMACNA’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Simon hopes to grow the program to 20 camps or more next year. To encourage contractors to host students at their facilities, a digital playbook has been created to outline everything from funding to running the program. To get your copy of the playbook, or for details on hosting a HMSE, email hmse@constructionforchange.org.