Exploring the construction trades

Anton Friederich is sitting in a simulator chair with joy sticks in his hands operating a toy Excavator trying to pick up a golf ball and set it on top of a pipe.

It took Friederich three tries to do it correctly, and all of his friends were standing around laughing at him for it. “It’s a lot harder than you think guys, you try,” Friederich said.

The International Union of Operating Engineers (Local 49ers) was one of the many trade booths at the Expo to promote jobs to the up-and-coming kids entering the workforce.

At the booth there were two different simulators: one was running a little toy excavator in a sandbox and the other one was a computer simulator that makes you feel like you are in the excavator loading dirt into a dump truck.

There were many kids from all different schools going to the various booths, which included a bricklayer, concrete workers, roofers, and many more. This gave the students examples of jobs they could go on to pursue after they graduate high school and enter the workforce.

Mr. Kevin Briggs and Ms. Kelsey Brandt brought their Intro to Trades classes to Mankato for the Construct Tomorrow expo Wednesday, Nov. 16. to give students more of an idea of jobs they can do and what the pros and cons are about them.

Over 900 students from southern Minnesota went to the expo to walk around the different booths to learn and have a chance at being recruited to the different union trade jobs in Minnesota.