Career Fair Introduces HS Students to Construction Industry

Danielle Sanders CNW Managing Editor

We see evidence of construction every day. It’s in the roads we drive on, the houses in which we live, and the buildings we shop and work in. Construction is all around us. The construction industry consists of more than carpenters, electricians, and laborers, it includes management, business, financial operations, administrative support, maintenance, and repair occupations. The industry is considered a solid path to a middle-class life. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black people only make up 6% of the construction workforce.

Lakeside Alliance, builders of the Obama Presidential Center, seek to increase those statistics with their career fair on January 28, 2023. Open to HS Students, the Learning with Lakeside Career Fair gives young people an opportunity to learn about pathways into the construction industry. The career fair is part of Lakeside Alliance’s commitment to engaging young people in the construction industry and shifting the paradigm of construction in Chicago by building a more diverse workforce for generations to come.

Kelly Powers Baria is VP at Powers and Son’s Construction. Kelly represents Powers & Sons in a joint venture with the Lakeside Alliance, a group of firms managing the construction of Chicago’s Obama Presidential Center. In her role, she leads the Alliance’s Project Leadership and Community & Citizenship work groups where she builds diversity into the project’s field force including subcontractors, tradespeople, and suppliers.

Baria says career fairs like this one give high school students an opportunity to see themselves in an industry dominated by men and by white people. “As you go through high school, everyone begins to ask students, what they want to do when they graduate. This career fair is an opportunity to allow students to contemplate the different possibilities. the earlier we have students thinking about different careers and what they may have a passion for, the better. It creates a better opportunity to take advantage of everything while they are in high school from the courses they enroll in as they plan for college or before they enter into an apprenticeship program.”

The construction industry includes occupations across many disciplines and specialties. Three-fifths of those employed in construction are working as laborers, carpenters, and electricians while another one-fifth are employed in management, business, and financial operations. The remainder of the employees in construction work in installation, maintenance, repair, and administrative occupations. (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

There are also opportunities in computer, engineering, and science occupations within the industry.

Baria says students will be able to meet and speak with organizations and businesses at the career fair. “It’s an opportunity for high school students to see all of the careers that exist in bringing a project such as the Obama Presidential Center, from idea to reality.” The Learning with Lakeside Career fair will have representatives from local trade unions, architects, members of the Obama Center’s design team, engineers, accounting, and members of the virtual design team from Lakeside on hand to talk to students. “Students can ask questions such as what experience I need to have, what would my first job be like, or what types of projects do you work on?” said Baria. “We are hoping to give students a 360-degree view of everything that’s available in our industry.

The Learning with Lakeside Career Fair is open to all Chicago-area high school students. All attendees are required to register at www.lakesidealliance.com.