At the IBEW Local 701 Union Hall, young adults in various life stages gathered on Thursday to learn from professionals about careers in the trades.
“Today is one of my favorite days of the year. It’s the DuPage County Trade Apprenticeship Expo,” said Karyn Charvat, executive director at PowerForward DuPage. “We are going to be welcoming in close to 800 registrants today who are interested in learning more about a career within the trades.”
Young adults learn from trades professionals
Hosted by PowerForward DuPage, the most recent expo brought in 13 businesses to educate high school students, parents, and college graduates.
“Everyone is here today to just gather information,” said Frank Gravina, business manager at IBEW Local 701. “They do have the ability to sometimes interact with some products and some of our equipment, so just they get a good all-around feeling and understanding of what each trade has to offer.”
Charvat added, “It’s really just a wonderful opportunity for these folks to have the time, one on one, to meet with the training directors to find out what’s involved.”
Sixth Trade Apprenticeship Expo brings steady growth
PowerForward started the Expo in 2018.
“We recognized that a lot of our tradesmen and women were starting to retire in quite large numbers, and we talked about it with leadership. We just discussed what outreach we could do within the county to attract more young people into the trade. So we came up with the Trade Apprenticeship Expo,” Charvat said.
This year’s event had a record number of registrants.
“We were sidelined for a few years by COVID, but came back strong, and today, we’re welcoming in close to 800,” Charvat said.
Charvat was encouraged by the increased turnout to talk trades.
“I absolutely think that the message is starting to get out that this is a wonderful alternative to college,” she said. “Sometimes college isn’t for everyone, and we’ve not had enough exposure in the high schools in the last decade to really introduce the trades to younger generations. So this is sort of where we’ve had to step in, open up the doors, and say, ‘Hey, come on in. Check us out. Learn to see what we’re all about.’ And you know, we keep saying, trade the traditional career path for a career in the trades.”
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