‘So many opportunities’: Kids learn about a life after high school that doesn’t include college at Ferris High School trades night

Students and community members came in swaths to a trades night at Ferris High School, a job fair that used hands-on activities and bouts with equipment to highlight in-demand positions that don’t require a college degree.

A partnership between the school and Associated Builders and Contractors, the ABC Trades Nightlast week was meant to spur interest in trades among high schoolers who may not be college bound, or anyone looking to enter the trades industry.

Dawn Hilsendeger, college and career counselor at Ferris, said the event helps raise awareness of the full catalog of post-graduation pathways. Hilsendeger said she isn’t even aware of the full breadth of careers in trades available to students; trades night showcased dozens of vendors from fields including elevator services, disaster response and welding.

“There is not enough known about all the trades out there, and there has also been a lot of push to go to a four-year college, too, not so much recently, but in the longer-term past,” Hilsendeger said. “Some kids are making those choices without knowing all the opportunities.”

She said she sees in kids the widely perceived narrative that college is a ticket toward financial stability. Events like Ferris’ seek to change this narrative through the showcase of trades.

Senior Kenzell McIntyre isn’t planning to pursue college after graduating from Ferris, looking instead for a job that keeps his hands busy. But he feels there’s a stigma attached to these fields.

“A lot of the time, in the older generation, they’ll say that you’re not going to college so you’re not going to be successful, but I feel like that’s so different in today’s era,” McIntyre said. “There’s so many opportunities and stuff. I mean, jobs are everywhere, everyone’s looking for hires right now.”

At the trades fair, McIntyre perused booths advertising positions in welding and manufacturing, particularly intrigued by welding jobs promoted by OXARC, which is hiring for cylinder handlers and welders in Spokane, with pay starting at $18 an hour, according to the OXARC website. McIntyre considered an internship operating computer numerically controlled tools, his father’s job. Positions in this field earn a median hourly wage of $31.50, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“People who do this line of work, they’re pretty smart people, they use their head a lot,” he said. “I feel like that’s a big misconception, is construction workers are all muscle, no brain. But a lot of this stuff I’ve realized today takes a lot of critical thinking, put your mind to the task.”

While a job using his hands is what draws McIntyre to a future in trades, freshman Caylen Manzan is more economically motivated.

“Money is definitely first in my life, money over everything,” Manzan said. “I mean, money’s money.”

His eyes have been opened to construction. Though the ninth-grader is too young for employment now, he’s excited to start earning a paycheck, Hopefully in the next year, he said.

In Washington, construction laborers earn a median hourly wage of $23.71, equipment operators around $37 hourly and carpenters $30.42 per hour, and according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor , these are among the highest employed jobs in the construction industry.

Mazan and freshman Ieyes Alcanzar took advantage of the hands-on equipment opportunities presented at the fair; driving a concrete presser and pourer and rising into the air on a construction lift.

“In the sky, it was mad scary; it was terrifying, almost,” Alcanzar said.

After a dizzying ride on the lift, Alcanzar can rule high elevation jobs out of his future employment. He’d rather follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue a plumbing career.

“Stay close to the ground, or actually kind of under the ground,” he said.

Gold Seal Plumbing caught his eye at the trades fair, which advertises a $19 starting hourly pay with no experience necessary. After four years of on-the-job training and passing a journeyman license test, service journeymen plumbers make $38.50 an hour.

That’s the path Journeyman Dawson Hurd opted to follow. He became a plumber immediately out of high school, undeterred by naysayers calling him “stupid” for not going to college. Four years later, he earned his journeymen card, which he said Gold Seal paid for. He’s debt-free and enjoys the camaraderie he builds with his team of plumbers.

“It’s pretty much building Legos together all day,” he said.

Associated Builders and Contractors is hosting a similar trades night at East Valley High School on Oct. 25 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Many vendors at the event will be hiring.