CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Recent 17-year-old Clayton County graduate TayJianna Smith says she learned from one of the very best.
“Well, I grew up fixing stuff with my dad,” Smith said.
She was part of the recent Clayton County Schools class of 2024, and a growing number of those grads will skip college and student debt to go into construction.
“The trend is moving to students leaving high school and wanting to earn skills and trades so they can enter the workforce and start making money,” Perry Career Academy Principal Dr. Terry Young told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
They’re getting the skills at the academy, which has partnered with the nonprofit Construction Ready offering three weeks of hands-on training, with good jobs waiting.
“Once they get out there and get additional experience and get their feet wet, and maybe get an apprenticeship or earn a journeyman license, they can make anywhere from 30 to 50 dollars per hour,” Site Manager Daniel Jean-Baptiste said.
94% of the Clayton County students who have graduated from this course landed jobs in the industry. The only reason it wasn’t all of them was because some were still 17 years old. They need to turn 18 to work on a construction site.
TRENDING STORIES:
- VIDEO: Murder suspect out on bond shoots up store in Tesla drive-by, wounding man
- Roswell officer caught on camera threatening to “blow holes” in kids, police say
- Demolition day set for major metro Atlanta mall
Smith says she will go into engineering, and it all started by working alongside her dad.
“That’s how I grew that passion. You can fix stuff. Me being a girl and his oldest daughter, inviting me into that world regardless of my gender parked something. I can be a girl and fix stuff too,” Smith said.
There will be a hiring fair on the Perry Career Academy campus in 2 weeks. A total of 16 construction companies will conduct interviews, with up to 70 jobs available.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
IN OTHER NEWS:
©2024 Cox Media Group
