When 38 middle and high school kids signed up for Boys & Girls Club of Whatcom County Summer Camp, they had no idea they would learn about careers in aviation, carpenter trades, maritime ship building, and health care. Thanks to collaboration between the Boys and Girls Clubs of Whatcom County (BGCWC) Senior Vice President of Operations Mike Babauta and Career Connect Northwest hosted by the Northwest Educational Service District 189’s (NWESD 189) Donovan Tate and Mary Powers, kids ages 14-18 participated in field trips to experience career options in our region. They called it “Workforce Wednesdays.”
The collaboration catalyst was the “High School & Beyond: Exploring Best Practices, Tools, and Hope” conference at the NWESD 189 in May 2023, where Tate, Powers, and Babauta met. Boys & Girls Clubs tagline, “Great Futures Start Here,” fit perfectly into Career Connect Northwest’s goal to help students explore different high-wage, high demand career pathways. When school’s out, Boys & Girls Clubs are in, so it made sense to create activities to inspire the kids to get excited about options for their future.
While field trips are fun, the underlying goal is to provide career exploration activities focusing on high-wage, high-demand industries in the Skagit and Whatcom counties region. Maritime, healthcare, aviation, and construction trades are all interested in getting the next generation trained and ready to fill these fields, but to get kids interested, they need to know these careers exist and how to access them.
To help make these connections, Babauta, Tate, and Powers curated four summer experiences with the help of their education and employer Career Connected Learning partners.
Field Trip 1: Careers in Maritime — Ship Building and Repair at Dakota Creek Industries
Students visited Dakota Creek Industries to take a closer look at shipbuilding.
BGCWC commenced the summer field trips by visiting Dakota Creek Industries (DCI) in Anacortes to learn about ship building. The kids learned about the importance of safety at a functioning worksite as they donned safety glasses and hard hats for their tour. Kids climbed a tall metal staircase to the deck of the dry-docked M/V Chetzemoka ferry and went inside the engine room for an exclusive tour by WSDOT (Washington Department of Transportation) engineer Scott Mullan. The kids asked what their guide Pat Knapp, DCI warehouse manager, liked best about his job. He said he felt pride knowing all the thought, planning, and expertise it takes to build a large vessel, whether it is a barge, a ferry, or a commercial fishing boat. It takes time to complete these projects, sometimes years from start to finish, due to sourcing parts and building the project piece-by-piece, all while ensuring all employees are as safe as possible during production. DCI encouraged individuals to apply for labor positions from the age of 18 onwards as they are committed to nurturing young talent in the maritime trades.
Field Trip 2: Careers in Aviation, Piloting Planes and Mechanics with James Walsh
As summer flew by, the next Workforce Wednesday focused on careers in aviation with James Walsh, pilot and dean of students at Cascadia Elementary School in Ferndale. The session included a lesson on helping each other when challenged, thanks to a complex paper airplane project the students successfully completed. Walsh showed footage from his plane cockpit as he landed in Lake Chelan and played the Top Gun soundtrack to engage the students. Students discovered there is no age minimum to start receiving flight instruction lessons with a trainer, and the Federal Aviation Administration will issue a Student Pilot Certificate to those 16 years old and older upon application/training, which allows them to fly solo. According to an Associated Press news article published Feb. 9, 2023, the government estimates 18,000 openings per year for airline and commercial pilots this decade, with many of those replacing retirees. Consulting firm Oliver Wyman estimates airlines in North America will face a shortage of 30,000 pilots by 2032.
Field Trip 3: Careers in Construction Trades through Apprenticeships with the Northwest Carpenter’s Institute
Students learn about construction trades at the Northwest Carpenter’s Institute during a visit this summer.
To build on different career choices, the Northwest Carpenter’s Institute (NWCI) in Burlington welcomed BGCWC to their training center for a construction trades tour and talk. Joe Crump, carpenter and training Coordinator, taught students about unions and explained the many important roles carpenters play in building bridges, scaffolding, buildings, and infrastructure in our region. A post-event survey from a 15-year-old girl indicated, “I want to be a scaffolder and work at a refinery.” Another 12-year-old wrote, “One thing that surprised me is that carpenters don’t always use wood.” The trade offers apprenticeships in general carpentry, but also in drywall/finisher, scaffold erector, pile driver, millwright, and interior systems. The general carpentry apprenticeship is a four-year program with wages starting at $32 per hour, so students earn while they learn. Upon completion of their apprenticeship, the new journey-level carpenters can also receive an associate’s degree in multi-occupational trades from Skagit Valley College by taking a small number of additional courses.
Field Trip 4: Careers in Health Care, Medical Assisting, and Physical Therapist Assistant
Workforce Wednesday’s final field trip to Whatcom Community College (WCC) featured health care careers in medical assisting and as a physical therapist assistant (PTA). Students participated in hands-on activities at the Health Professions Education Center, located just outside the main campus. Melissa Perrin, an adjunct faculty from the Medical Assisting Department, instructed the students in removing sutures from artificial arms and handwashing with germ-illumination lighting. Current students in healthcare programs at WCC also participated by supervising the kids and helping them with activities as needed. In the PTA classroom, a panel of three current students used wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, and skeletons to highlight the career and talk about their internship experiences.
Brenda Henoch, WCC PTA program coordinator, commented on how willing the kids were to interact. Associate Director for Student Access & Career Pathways Amy Riedel led a session on the Holland Interest Profiler Assessment and how interests can fit into different areas of study. Associate Director for Running Start Karla Coglizer explained how high school students can take classes at WCC to earn college-level credits. A BGCWC kid raised his hand and asked, “What is tuition?” He learned that tuition for Running Start is free, however students need to find their own transportation, pay for textbooks, and pay fees. Families living with a low income may get fees waived. Both Riedel and Coglizer said how engaged the kids were and that they asked good questions.
Summer is Over; Collaboration Will Continue
Even though summer is over, Babauta, Tate, and Powers plan on continuing to collaborate during the school year through after-school career-exploration programming.
“Partnering with Career Connect Northwest to curate these Workforce Wednesday experiences have brought tremendous value to our teen program at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Whatcom County,” Babauta said. “We want our teens to have as many opportunities as possible to explore potential career paths. We also wanted to prioritize experiences that highlighted the skilled trades. Going directly to college after graduation is a great option, but we wanted to be sure our teens knew that there was an alternate career path as well. Mary and Donovan were great partners in making this happen. We are excited to continue this work with them for the upcoming the school year and future summers.”
It takes many people to deliver a series of successful events. The Boys & Girls Club staff and volunteers provided transportation, chaperoning, and logistical planning. The NWESD staff also appreciates their employer partners from Dakota Creek Industries; Pilot James Walsh from Cascadia Elementary School; Joe Crump from NWCI; and Trish Newbold, Britny Olsen, Karla Coglizer, Amy Riedel, and PTA & Medical Assisting instructors Brenda Henoch and Melissa Perrin and the students/staff from the Health Professions Education Center at Whatcom Community College.
For more information on Career Connect Northwest’s programming, check out its website at nwesd.org/ccl.
Contact:
Mary Powers & Donovan Tate, Career Connected Learning Specialists with Career Connect Northwest hosted by the NWESD189 at mpowers@nwesd.org & dtate@nwesd.org.
