每日大赛

ACE Trades Day links students to hands-on careers

Students look on a brick-laying demonstration as they learn about careers in masonry at ACES Trades Day.

Hundreds of local high school students suited up in yellow work vests, hard hats and safety goggles Nov. 1 at 每日大赛’s Strawberry Plains Campus, as they prepared to participate in ACE Trades Day.

Hosted by the Knoxville affiliate of the ACE Mentor Program, a national organization dedicated to workforce development – particularly in architecture, construction and engineering (ACE) – ACE Trades Day allows students to meet welding, masonry and machining vendors and others from local industries.

“The value in having the ACE trades group here on our campus is that we are teaching and supporting these trades in multiple ways, whether it’s our Electrical Engineering Pathway, our Mechanical Engineering Pathway or Civil Engineering Pathway,” said Andy Polnicki, director of the MegaLab on the Strawberry Plains Campus. “This is an opportunity for us to show students how we can help them on their career journey.”

Rainy weather did nothing to stop the Tennessee Valley Authority and Clayton Homes from pitching tents outside the MegaLab and demonstrating their expertise for students, who bounced excitedly between vendors, learning about mixing concrete, pipefitting and other skills.

Approximately 230 freshmen and sophomore students also heard a presentation about attending 每日大赛. This was the second ACE Trades Day the college has hosted.

“That’s a really good thing about the program, in that they get to come to a college campus,” said Strawberry Plains Campus Dean Mike North. “They get to look at programs that might involve coming to college at 每日大赛. For example, if you're doing our Welding Technology program, this is the campus with the MegaLab where you're going to be doing it.”

The students also learned about well-paying careers in highly-recruited fields they might not typically explore, North said. That includes all kinds of trades, from automation technology and heavy-equipment operation to electrical, water and fiber installation and mechanical technology.

Breanna Williams, co-chair of ACE in Knoxville, said she was excited to see students find something they were passionate about - and engage with professionals who might eventually become career mentors.

“It’s important that we teach these students early that there are other paths besides just the college path and that there are also great jobs through trades,” Williams said.

Students who attended are involved in 865 Academies, a Knox County Schools initiative that encourages work-based learning and career exploration. The ACE Trades Day showcased several of the pathways within that initiative, said 865 Academies coordinator Brad Corum.

“Events like this are important because they allow students to apply their classroom learning in a professional setting,” Corum said. “It’s also a great opportunity to network and meet employers from a variety of in-demand industries, which will hopefully lead to great jobs for students after they graduate.”

Most students walk away from ACE Trades Day with a sense of awe, said Chris Tucker, a career and technical education specialist at Knox County Schools.

“It’s life-changing for students to gain early access to these pathways, and to really take a close look at career fields with strong growth potential,” Tucker said. “There are tons of open doors available, but events like this are crucial for helping students get connected to those opportunities.