PASCO CO, Fla. — The builders of tomorrow are being put to the test.
What You Need To Know
- Pasco County high school juniors and seniors learning valuable trade skills in AmSkills Bootcamp
- Program begins as a one-week pre-employment bootcamp, transitioning into a six-week internship with the county
- Job opportunities include work in the water and waste water industry- fields that are growing and looking for workers
It’s through a utilities bootcamp the county is hosting for high school juniors and seniors.
For the last five years, the program has been offering hands-on utilities training for high school students. It begins as a one-week pre-employment bootcamp at Anclote High School. After that they embark on a six-week internship with the county working in the utilities department. Bringing what they learned in camp and applying it to real-life work scenarios.
“There’s a lot of entry positions available with a lot of room for growth,” said Tom Donahue, Maintenance Supervisor with Pasco County Utilities Operations and Maintenance. “Our area of Pasco as well as other areas throughout Florida are rapidly expanding and there’s just endless job opportunities so it’s a really good career field to get into at a young age.”
Some of those job opportunities include work in the water and waste water industry. It’s critical work experience for a field that is growing and looking for workers.
“I like how I can challenge myself to constantly learn something new every day,” Amelia Kunkel said.
Inside a classroom, Kunkel is hard at work on an electric board turning a passion into a potential profession.
“I feel like it’s very valuable. You learn so much about your career options and options you may not have even considered,” Kunkel said.
This Cypress Creek High senior is one of twelve students who signed up for this year’s AmSkills and Pasco Utilities Bootcamp. A seven week venture into learning skilled trades. From building robots, to soddering and electrical wiring. The training is extensive but all necessary skills to have in this line of work.
“We’ve learned how to properly wire things without setting off an explosion and how to test it to make sure that it was going to be safe,” she said.
On this particular day, Kunkel and her camp mates are learning about soddering. Creating a circuit board with lights and alarms.
“The whole point of this is to be able to connect them while the electricity is still running through them,” she said.
The goal is to take real-life work scenarios and bring them to the classroom. Providing students a safe environment to learn from those who work in the field. Professionals who once experienced this very bootcamp for themselves.
“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do in the future,” said Mitchell Wilkins, Lead Pump Station Mechanic with Pasco County Utilities. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to do a trade or college or whatever route. But after they had me try out with Pasco County Utilities, it kind of just clicked with me and that’s where I got my interest and my career.”
Kunkel says upon graduating, she’d like to explore work in pollution control. Helping the environment any way she can.
“I am interested in going into environmental engineering so the Pasco Utilities internship, at the end of it, really had my attention because that’s likely an area where I’ll end up with my career field,” she said.
A step that will have started right here in this classroom.
All spots have been filled for this year’s camp. However, you can learn how to sign up for next year online right here.
