ATLANTA — Eleventh grader Evan Margalus was sizing up some new duds, the kind a working man wears.
“This is what I think I want to do for the rest of my life,” Margalus told Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen.
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Margalus was one of the many construction students helping build a house inside the Georgia World Congress Center this week.
Longtime TV construction star Ty Pennington was also in attendance. He is currently the host of SKILLS JAM, a for youth, by youth content YouTube series presented by the Skilled Careers Coalition.
“I love the sound of the saws, I love the smell of the sawdust. It’s awesome. People should experience this,” Pennington said.
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Thousands of the top construction students from all over the country are on this job site.
A rapidly growing number of young people are learning a trade, like welding student Ashleigh Simpson.
“It’s great to be here and see how many females are actually in the field. It’s really cool to see,” Simpson said.
Pennington told Channel 2 Action News that over the next decade, 4 million skilled jobs could be left unfilled, so the time to build for the future is now.
“Four years of college is one thing. Military is another. But you can also go into a trade and go right into the industry, and get paid a really good wage. Then you can turn that into your own business and be your own boss,” Pennington said.
Margalus really likes the sound of that.
“College is expensive. You see all these people working. Hey, I can do this too! It’s very inspiring,” Margalus said.
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