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Trades camp introduces middle school students to careers at local businesses

The weeklong visits invite young students to the businesses instead of tabling at a job fair.

PORTLAND, Maine — We often present stories from job fairs and tech schools, where young adults are about to find their calling in a high-demand trades job. 

Instead, this week, a group of businesses teamed up to bring young teens right to their doorsteps.

On Tuesday morning, 13 seventh and eighth graders from Gorham and Bonney Eagle visited Central Maine Power’s facility in Portland. They learned the ropes at Portland Yacht Services Monday and planned to check out Harvey Performance, Moody's Collision, and Gorham Sand & Gravel before the weekend. Gorham Parks & Recreation helped plan the week as well.

Kyle Goodrich works as a Jobs for Maine Grads specialist within Freeport Middle School and helped chaperone Tuesday's excursion. He was thrilled to have kids spend the start of their summer vacation finding new ways to learn.

"Not everyone learns in the classroom, right?" he posed. "So, it's good to see individuals in the field and finding what kind of makes them tick and what kind of makes them work."

Amy Marston, from CMP, was excited to connect with kids before they even get to high school and to bring the students to the actual equipment, instead of simply bringing models to job fairs.

"What we wanted to do was target a younger demographic to show them—before maybe they have a career path or an education path planned—to show them there are other opportunities here," Marston said.

Everyone learns in their own way. And if these students are hungry to learn in June, that's a spark you'd wish you could bottle up.

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