Fort Wayne UNITED hosted their “Choose Success Initiative” last week. The event exposed teens to various careers and job opportunities in Fort Wayne.
Over a two-day period, the participants witnessed a sentencing in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Wendy Davis, spend half a day at Indiana Tech University and get hands-on experience in vocational training from skilled instructors.
It’s the second year the program took the participants to Sheet Metal Workers Local 20.
Business Representative Darryle Esterline, says he enjoys introducing the students to the Sheet Metal Workers joint apprenticeship training facility. He tells them this could be a game changer in their lives.
“It comes with a two year free degree with no student debit from Ivy Tech and at the end of five years, they could become a skilled craftsman or women in the sheet metal industry,” said Esterline.
Jordan Mckinney is a senior at New Haven High School. He says he plans to go to college but it was nice to hear other options and more about the apprenticeship.
“Yeah, I learned a lot basically coming in here. Listening to them talk and the guy told us he was doing a bunch of stuff but now he is the owner of this, so he basically came all the way up and started his own business,” said Mckinney.
Esterline says he is happy to collaborate with Fort Wayne UNITED because there is a big demand for workers.
At the end of the day all of the seniors received an employment application, in case they were interested in applying for the program upon graduation.
