Build My Future: Nearly 2,000 Southeast Missouri high school students take part in construction career expo

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Nearly 2,000 Southeast Missouri high school students spent the day in the construction industry, learning about the various options in the trade while also gaining hands-on experience during the Build My Future event Wednesday in Sikeston.

Approximately 1,850 students from 49 area high schools attended, while 24 construction industry exhibitors provided them with an "interactive industry experience." Industry officials and representatives from 21 sponsor organizations were also on hand, and Missouri's first lady Teresa Parson paid a visit early in the day.

The full-day expo with industry demonstrations, which was at the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo grounds, started with a session on safety followed by students interacting with the multiple interactive demonstrations in welding, plumbing, building, laying asphalt, pouring concrete, electrical wiring and more as well as tours of vehicles used in the industry. They also had the opportunity to speak with numerous representatives in the industry.

"We're working hard to help folks understand that there is another path," said Leonard P. Toenjes, president of Associated General Contractors of Missouri, or AGCMO. "Colleges have done a great job of helping young people understand the benefits of a four-year college education, and we're trying to do equally as good of a job to help them understand the benefits of an apprenticeship."

Toenjes said he was a carpenter apprentice and graduated from a four-year apprenticeship program, worked at the trade and has gone on through the industry.

Students work with asphalt using cookie cutters Wednesday at Missouri Women of Asphalt's station during the Build My Future event in Sikeston, Missouri.Leonna Heuring ~ Standard Democrat

"Let' face it," Toenjes said. "They've been in a classroom for 12 years. Our goal with this event is to help these young people understand that there is another option for training -- whether it's technical training, vocational training or actually working with some of the contractors. A lot of the contractors have their own training programs, so those are all great future opportunities."

Throughout October, which is Construction Careers Month, AGCMO is highlighting the current construction climate in Missouri, discussing today's critical skilled worker shortage and looking ahead to 2023.

"We're a part of Associated General Contractors of America which does an annual survey of all the members across the country, and overwhelmingly, no matter what part of the country you're in, the need for craft workers is off the charts," Toenjes said. "Everybody is looking for folks to work with their hands to get into the trades. We're also looking for project engineers, superintendents -- every caliber of worker within a construction field. We're seeing a large influx of federal dollars right now for clean water funding, infrastructure funding, roads, broadband. You can't cut and paste that into place. It has to have to have somebody to actually get out and run the equipment, to put the broadband in place, to have somebody actually get out and move the soil to build the roads."

More than 80% of contractors nationwide expressed workforce shortage as their No. 1 issue, he said.

"It wasn't lack of funding. It wasn't environmental regulations. It wasn't lack of work of opportunities. It was lack of people," Toenjes said.

Toenjes said he knows contractors right now who have told him they are in a position where they cannot take on anymore projects.

"They're booked up, and their owners are people needing projects built who are coming to them and saying: 'Hey, can you bid on this?' And they can't. They say: 'I don't have the people right now.' So, it's actually slowing down the economy. It's actually slowing down getting a new road in place or getting a new water line or treatment plant or internet service put in because of (a lack of) people."

Chad King, director of the Sikeston Career and Technology Center, said the main benefit of the BMF event is to show students the different areas of construction.

"There's so much more to construction that what they might normally think. It's not just building houses or building buildings," he said.

King said students have the opportunity to learn that construction also involves finance, engineering, planning and working with government, city and state officials. It also includes concrete work, bridge work, heavy equipment repair, heavy equipment operation, he said, noting those are just a few examples of what was on hand at Wednesday's event.

"These are all regional companies showing the different kinds of career fields out there for these kids," King said. "To give them exposure to all of it is the primary deal of today's event."

He said students could even get hired for a job through the event, which happened last year.

Some SCTC students also benefitted from Wednesday's event as the graphic art students made the T-shirts all the students attending the expo received, and the culinary arts students prepared the food for the lunch served to attendees, King said.

"It's a great event, and it just keeps growing," said King, who also serves on the committee for the Sikeston event. "Our reach of schools has stretched as far north as Ste. Genevieve and west as the Van Buren area, and it includes all of the Bootheel."

Last year, roughly 1,200 students attended the Sikeston event which was at Three Rivers College campus, he said.

"This year we had well over 1,800 register, and I think it's even more than that today," he said.

King said Sikeston is lucky to serve as a host.

"The Sikeston Jaycees were kind to let us use their space this year, and I see it getting even bigger next year," King said.

Abigail Midgett, co-owner of Southern Missouri Truck Driving School in Malden, Missouri, was one of the exhibitors on hand at Wednesday's event. She said there is a great need for more drivers.

"Ever since COVID, there is so much cargo that we haul," Midgett said.

She said her business has always gone to job fairs, but recently, they've been connecting with different schools. Last year, she said, they even hired three people straight out of school

On Wednesday, Midgett had set up a table with information for students and also fielded any questions they had.

"Their first questions has been: 'How much does it cost?' Then it's 'How much is pay? How much is home time?'" Midgett said.

Mason Dowdy, a senior at New Madrid County Central High School, said he though the Build My Future was a great experience.

"It's pretty cool to get out and have the hands-on experience at some of the stations," Dowdy said.

Dowdy added he planned to go into farming or welding after graduating high school.

Hannah Gambling, a junior at Poplar Bluff High School, said she didn't realize there were so many options in the construction field. She is currently enrolled in her school's welding program and plans to pursue a career in welding when she graduates.

"I like to be able to work with my own hands, and I like to work independently," she said of her plans to be a welder.

She said she was glad she could attend the event.

"It's a pretty cool event," Gambling said. "It's an opportunity to get hired and see all the options."