high school classroom, students don’t spend much time sitting at desks. They learn how to read a blueprint, put up framing and assemble a roof. Their skills are in hot demand, and they’ve been called upon to build backpack racks at elementary schools, construct a snack bar for the high school swim team and expand the weight room for the football team.
“Harbor Freight is working directly with teachers to determine what they need to keep their classrooms cutting edge,” said Chelle Travis, executive director of SkillsUSA, a nonprofit that promotes skilled trades. “As a result, students are able to develop exactly the skills industry needs from an entry-level worker.”
In 2017, he launched a nationwide annual prize, handing out up to $100,000 apiece to ten teachers. In the years since, he has helped over 100 teachers. Smidt has also spent millions to fund national educational organizations, like Big Picture Learning, which has designed an apprenticeship program for high schoolers interested in the trades.
Staci Sievert is one teacher who has rallied support for her program, which was in shambles when she took it on. After teaching social studies for over two decades, she was in the principal’s office at Seymour High School outside Green Bay, Wisconsin when they received an email that the tech ed teacher had quit right before classes were set to start. Students were facing the fourth year of long-term substitutes. She volunteered to take over and the principal took her up on it.
“The idea is to prepare every student to be a successful entry-level technician in the industry,” said Violet. “I want students to have basic knowledge of not just how to do oil changes and tire rotations, but more difficult things than that.”. The National League of Cities estimates that the U.S. has a shortage of one million construction workers.