Mobile workshop hits the road to build labor pipeline – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

A workshop on wheels could do something good to reshape how students view careers in construction.

The Be Pro Be Proud mobile workshop launches in Coppell this week.Students can step inside and connect with advanced virtual reality and augmented reality simulators to see real-world construction scenarios.

By exposing students to careers in construction, the hope is they’ll want to join a field where there is a critical need for talent.

“The skilled, gap that everybody is facing is the number one bottleneck that’s keeping contractors from doing more work in DFW. And so, what we hope to do is help with that talent pipeline by bringing younger people into the construction industry, by exposing them to what an amazing career in construction can look like from a young age,” said Meloni Raney, President and CEO of TEXO, the association that supports the non-residential construction industry in Texas.

“And then the piece that I’m most excited about is after they go through the workshop, they can interact with the smart board, and on that smart board, they can find out what a career in construction can pay or a career in the skilled trades can pay, and then it connects them with training programs in the area and also employers that are hiring them,” Rainey said. “So right out of high school, 18, and you graduate high school, you can go to work for one of these employers and they’ll pay for your training. They support the training. And then you get on the job skills.”

In its first six months, TEXO will get the Be Pro Be Proud mobile workshop to high schools in Dallas-Fort Worth and engage more than 1,500 students. Other schools can get information and request a visit.

“It’s something that gives these students the actual hands on opportunity, because that’s who is really drawn to construction. The individuals who like to do things with their hands, they like to be technically savvy, and it just gives their brain a little bit of an opportunity to see what it’s actually like versus what, I think, the world is telling them it’s like to be in construction,” Rainey said.

North Texas will get the first truck on wheels with 10 more all over the state in three years.

“We have to do a better job of telling the story of these amazing career opportunities,” Rainey said. “When you look at what’s happening with the Texas economy right now, it’s on the backs of construction.”