BUTTE - Kids in the Mining City got a break from the classroom Thursday so they could learn how to break ground. It’s a part of an effort to get young people to think about careers in the trade industry.
WATCH: Butte kids get hands-on look at careers in the trades
The Montana Contractors Association partnered with O’Keefe Drilling to host a Build Montana pop-up to expose grade-school students to different aspects of the construction trade.
“Well, you know, when they’re young, they love playing with blocks and somewhere along the way they forget how much they love building things and working with their hands and being outside, so we want to remind them they can do that when they’re adults,” Montana Contractors Association member Hailee Shaeffer said.
There were 10 stations giving students hands-on exposure to different parts of the trades industry. Some students got to run a mini-excavator.
“I did pretty good, but I felt like I was going to break something. Like, if you move the thing too quickly, it jerks a lot,” Sixth-grader Benjamin Bartholomew said.
“We have a huge workforce shortage, and we want to tell students that there are really lucrative careers within the construction industry,” Shaeffer said.
The MCA will be hosting pop-up events like this across the state.
