Local company connects with vocational-technical students
BUTLER TWP — It’s not rare for students of Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School to go straight into a job once they graduate. With the diploma ceremony just a few months away, the school is bringing in employers to connect students to careers.
Students in the building construction program at the school heard a presentation from S&B USA Wednesday, Feb. 18, where representatives from the Pittsburgh-based company discussed job opportunities in the field.
The visit was organized in partnership with the Challenge Program, a Johnstown-based nonprofit that builds “strategic connections between local businesses and high schools” in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
Julie Rothrauff, program development manager with the Challenge Program, said company visits help give students better ideas of how to apply their skills to careers once they leave high school. She said S&B USA offers apprenticeships which help students get on-the-job experience even after graduating high school.
“The main goal is to connect business and education,” Rothrauff said. “S&B is going to highlight how … once they get apprenticeships, they can learn and be in the workforce.”
About 20 students, mostly juniors and seniors, sat in on the presentation by S&B.
Jordan Hawker, human resources and business partner with S&B USA, said the company has union jobs that are full-time and there are typically positions open. The apprenticeships offer recent graduates the chance to get into a job without much real-world experience, he said.
“Across the board, trades need more people,” Hawker said. “We definitely go to technical schools in the area to talk about the opportunities.”
Students in the building construction program train in a variety of specialties, including carpentry, electrical, masonry and plumbing. They learn some welding and fabrication skills, according to the program summary on the school’s website.
Ron Sankey, the vo-tech’s building construction teacher, said students can go on to work in a number of fields relating to construction. Many of them are prepared before even walking across the stage.
“Usually by June, I’ll have 15 of them already employed,” Sankey said.
Company visits like this take place around five times a year in the building construction program. Sankey said that aside from students getting information on available jobs, they can also get educated on how much a jobs pays, what retirement or pension plans they offer and promotion opportunities after a few years in the field.
Sankey said that while students may be quiet during a company visit and presentation, he is often inundated with questions from the students in the hours or days afterward.
He added his former students sometimes present to his current classes, which helps emphasize the career pathways students can take after graduation. Sankey said not only are students prepared for jobs as they approach graduation, they excel once they enter those jobs.
“I never knew about this when I was in the business,” he said. “But if I did, I would have hired everyone from here.”
