Expo Bringing More Local Graduates to the Skilled Trades

CANFIELD, Ohio – Events like the Mahoning Valley Skilled Trades Expo are helping those with apprenticeship programs find the next generation of skilled workers.

More than 5,500 middle school and high school students attended this year’s three-day event at the Canfield Fairgrounds, coming from Mahoning, Columbiana, Trumbull, Mercer, Lawrence and Portage counties. The students got an opportunity to try hands-on projects with representatives from about 20 trades organizations.

Rob Eggleston, coordinator of career counseling at the Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio, said the exhibitors at the event told him younger people are coming to them for apprenticeships sooner after graduating.

“We’re starting to see it. … Four, five years down the line, the ones who have been to the expo, the ones that have been exposed to this for so many years, these are the ones that are now signing up to go into these trades,” Eggleston said.

Rick Boyarko, director of training for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 396, was at the expo teaching students some of the various ways pipes are put together, including welding, soldering and pipe threading.

“I think I’m getting more younger kids,” Boyarko said of the results of events like the Skilled Trades Expo. “In my new apprenticeship class this year, I have five kids that are right out of high school, so they just graduated last year and went right into our programs.”

With an average age of 23, Boyarko said those in his five-year program and other trade programs represented at the event will make money while going through the training, will make a good living wage during their career and have benefits that are unmatched by other types of jobs.

Boyarko said the event is a great way to expose students to careers they may not have been considering as they approach graduation.

“You are not just getting the kids that are going to trade school,” Boyarko said of the students he has been meeting at the expo. “You are getting kids that maybe they don’t know what they want to do, but they certainly have no idea what we do.”

Seventeen school districts with pre-apprenticeship programs can choose two students to compete at the expo, with judging based on time and accuracy in tasks demonstrating their knowledge of skills, such as following blueprints and laying out studs.

“The kids love it,” Eggleston said. “They get real competitive about it.”

They also take home some prizes, including a Milwaukee Versa Pack, a $250 gift card to Power Tool Supply and a $200 gift card to Red Wing. Eggleston said some of the students who received prizes during the competition have already committed to work in the trades and will be taking them to work with them. 

Joseph Badger Local School in Kinsman recently added a trades class again just in time for seniors like Joey Betts and Payton Roden, who said they were interested in possible trades careers, as well as learning skills to use at their own homes one day.

Raeanne Abramovich, school counselor at Badger, said bringing back a program has been exciting for these students and is giving them hands-on opportunities serving as a break from the books during the day. Students have been building tool boxes and will build birdhouses in the future.

“We had a shop room, and our teacher had retired,” Abramovich said. “Those are kind of like a dying breed of educators, so it is hard to find somebody that will come in and teach that. … We were glad to bring it back to our kids to give them a little bit of hands-on instead of academics.”

She credits Steve Kochemba, who already taught at the school and has a good rapport with the students, with deciding to take on the challenge of teaching the new class, which she hopes will grow in the future.

After learning some safety skills first, Betts said the class quickly began to use tools, learn how to measure and build a toolbox.

“We got lucky, because we were one year away from missing out on this. So we get to take advantage of it,” Betts said.

“It’s been awesome,” Roden added. “He’s been teaching us life skills, things we’re going to need to know as adults. How not to chop our fingers off, you know, the basics.”

Coming to the expo allowed the Badger students yet another chance to learn about even more opportunities in the trades, things they might not have considered.

“It may spark an interest, and they will want to know more information,” Abramovich said. “So you never know what’s going to spark with a kid.”

The Mahoning Valley Skilled Trades Expo ran from Tuesday through Thursday.

Pictured at top: Josh Srock, a McDonald High School junior, picks up and drops balls with the assistance of Angelo Terranello, representing the operating engineers.

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