{"id":342035,"date":"2026-07-16T10:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T10:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342035\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T10:59:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T10:59:20","slug":"wareworks-launches-program-to-connect-high-schoolers-with-trade-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342035\/","title":{"rendered":"WareWorks launches program to connect high schoolers with trade careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Jacksonville-based workforce organization<\/a> is working to change the way high school students think about skilled trades \u2014 and it\u2019s taking that message directly to them.<\/p>\n

WareWorks Skilled Trades Institute held a launch event Wednesday to unveil its three-tiered approach to getting more young people interested in trade careers. The program focuses on awareness, hands-on experience, and career connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many organizations out there that are doing just great work, right, but there\u2019s still some gaps,\u201d WareWorks CEO Karen Bowling said. \u201cAnd so how do we work with them to help close those gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: From Venus Swimwear HQ to a new skilled trades hub: WareWorks opens doors for those looking to \u2018Trade Up\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

What WareWorks is \u2014 and what it isn\u2019t<\/p>\n

Despite having \u201cinstitute\u201d in its name, WareWorks is not a trade school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a trade school,\u201d Bowling said. \u201cWhat it is, is we are focused really on how do we get more high school students exposed to the skilled trade and make those connections through community partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organization is based in the former Venus Swimwear headquarters \u2014 a 135,000-square-foot facility in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many different versions of the trades,\u201d said Chris Ware, founder of WareWorks Skilled Trades Institute.<\/p>\n

Ware said partners already in the space include the University of North Florida. He also described plans for FSCJ in a culinary space, UNF\u2019s Sculpture Department, and potential medical simulation labs through UNF or Baptist Health.<\/p>\n

The three-tiered approach<\/p>\n

The first tier is awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make the kid, the ninth grader and his parent and his community accepting that a career path in the trades is a great way to go,\u201d Ware said.<\/p>\n

The second tier is hands-on experience. WareWorks partnered with B-Pro B-Proud to bring a mobile learning lab \u2014 a mobile workshop \u2014 directly to students across Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs spread out as Jacksonville is, it\u2019s hard to bring them to a location like this,\u201d Bowling said. \u201cSo we want to go out to where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third tier is career connection. WareWorks created a career platform, accessible through its website, designed to match students with jobs in the trades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat students tell us they want is who has the job, what do they pay, and what would I be a good fit for,\u201d Bowling said.<\/p>\n

The website provides all of those connections in one place, Bowling confirmed.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Jacksonville-based workforce organization is working to change the way high school students think about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,140003],"class_list":["post-342035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-trade-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}