NCCR’s Build Your Future Campaign recently teamed up with the Construction Education Foundation of North Texas and North Lake College to host the second annual Construction Career Day at CEF/NLC’s West Campus, the DFW Education Center in Irving Texas.

This was one of several events held in Houston, North Carolina and Orlando, Fla., that offered students the chance to meet with construction professionals.

More than 800 high school juniors and seniors attended the Dallas event, representing 35 north Texas high schools. The event featured equipment and welding demonstrations, opportunities to speak with local employers in the construction industry, and visit booths that showcased various construction industry professions.

“It’s critical that our industry reach out to the youth, come out of our schools and work with the school systems,” says Diane Greene, executive director of Build Your Future Campaign. “This event, like our others, is industry reaching out to students and educators to inform them of the needs industry. It’s also to help educate our educators that a four-year college degree is not the only path. There are career education programs that are critical to our industry. Approximately 65% of the jobs within the next three to four years will demand two-year degrees or skill training.”

Sponsors of the event included TEXO and the American Subcontractor Association, who provided more than 100 industry voluteers.

“This region, Texas and Louisiana really get it, they understand what we need to do to prepare our industry for the upswing and meet our needs,” Greene says. “That’s a really good thing. They really understand and are very supportive of everything the industry does to help support this issue, they’re very much in tune and are willing to do something about it.”