High school students getting trade experience

SIDNEY -- Twelve Sidney High School students took a field trip, in Sidney, from the textbook to the work site.

The focus of the visit included connecting design with site application.

"My class, I do the drafting and design, we hope to be out here once a month just so we can see the progress of the project," said Sidney High School drafting teacher Lacy Russell.

One of the students, James Kokjer, described construction as a difficult job with many trades, many hours and a lot of workers needed. 

"People think it's just building a house, real simple, but you gotta be real intelligent, real smart, real adaptive and you just gotta be able to learn," Kokjer said.

Students learned what is required, and what may not be needed, to succeed in a construction-related trade. Students met workers who advanced through construction, those who earned a degree before entering the trades and those who advanced to a "very respectable living" without a college degree.

"We have some welding and some construction and drafting students from Sidney High School here today. We just want to get them more experience in the field," Russell said at the October 5 visit to the Sidney Regional Medical Center work site.

Project Manager Colin Bailey expects visits to occur at least once per month as the work continues.

"We're excited to have students from Sidney High School out here on the Sidney Regional Medical Center Extended Care facility project for a tour. It was their drafting class, welding class. We just had them out here to discuss the construction of the project. I think we're going to have them out here monthly, at least once a month, to kind of keep then up to date as the project progresses through its construction phases," Bailey said.