This Idaho Forest Group log processor grabs, strips and cuts logs as a student is shown the equipment controls.
A total of 400 students, more than 50 businesses and many volunteers participated in the 9th Annual Hard Hats, Hammers & Hot Dogs event in Kootenai County in early October. The career day is designed to give students exposure to manufacturing, construction, logging, truck driving, and a variety of other skilled trades.
Students toured the new North Idaho College Career and Technical Education (CTE) facility, located next to the Kootenai Technical Education Campus (KTEC) where the event was held. CTE has CAD technology, Welding, Automotive, Machine and CNC classes along with other technical programs.
After the tour, students were able to get hands-on experience operating dozers, skid steers, log processors and much more. The students also engaged in activities indoors with the idea of exposing them to the many occupational opportunities in North Idaho.
Lukas Witkowski monitored the tweets and Instagram posts from students during the Hard Hats, Hammers & Hot Dogs event.
This year Lukas Witkowski, director of Industry Relations with Inland Northwest AGC, incorporated social media into the event with the hashtag #H4NorthIdaho. This allowed students to post pictures to their Instagram and twitter feeds and share the event with their friends. Witkowski said, “I just returned from a construction career day in Tri Cities (Washington) and used social media to engage the students. The kids loved it.”
— Vicki Kunz, Kootenai County local office senior workforce consultant,
Victoria.Kunz@labor.idaho.gov