The trades have to replace themselves.

Every contractor in Central New York is short of people, and has been for a decade. The association's answer is to put five hundred teenagers on real equipment every October and see who catches.

Syracuse Construction Career Day

Each fall the Syracuse Builders Exchange and a committee of local industry leaders and educators run Construction Career Day for high school students from across the region. More than five hundred students attend.

It is not a careers fair with pamphlets. Students operate construction equipment and machinery under supervision, and work through skilled trades exhibits and demonstrations — which is the only form of careers advice that has ever convinced a sixteen-year-old of anything.

Exhibitors include contractors, unions and trade organizations running apprenticeship programmes, colleges and universities, professional design firms, the New York State Department of Transportation and equipment dealers.

Exhibiting or volunteering

Member firms supply the equipment, the operators and the people who answer questions all day. If your firm wants a booth or can put a machine and an operator on the field, the office is the place to start.

(315) 437-9936 Volunteer or exhibit

A tradesperson in a hard hat working at a bench in a fabrication shop

A tracked skid-steer loader tipping a bucket of material on a site

Somebody put every one of these people on a job site for the first time.

Syracuse City School District CTE partnership

The association partners with the Syracuse City School District’s Career and Technical Education programme to support students moving toward the commercial construction industry during their high school years.

The partnership depends on member contractors as much as on the curriculum: it works when firms offer job shadowing and internships, so students see the work rather than only hearing about it. Firms interested in taking a student should contact the office.

Scholarships

The Syracuse Builders Exchange awards scholarships each year, funded in part by the charity clay shoot. Applications go out to member employers in the spring and recipients are notified in early summer.

Eligible applicants are full-time employees of a member firm, or the children of one, who are graduating high school seniors or already enrolled full-time at a college or university anywhere in the United States. Every field of study is eligible — this is not restricted to construction programmes.

Applications and deadlines come from the office: (315) 437-9936

Construction industry mentorship

Contractors new to the industry — members and other entrepreneurs alike — can be matched with experienced Central New York operators. Questions are routed to a mentor who then contacts the person who asked directly.

Dimi Wingate, extension 14 · (315) 437-9936

If you are a student, a parent or a teacher

The construction trades in Central New York are hiring, they train people who arrive with nothing, and the apprenticeship route costs far less than the alternatives. Call and ask — the office will point you at the right programme even if you never join anything.

(315) 437-9936 In the community