MILWAUKEE – Students in two school districts got to learn outside the classroom at the site of Milwaukee’s soon-to-be newest skyscraper on Monday.
Tina Cook works in the Wauwatosa School District.
“It’s called the LAUNCH program, and it’s a partnership between the Wauwatosa School District and the Elmbrook School District,” Cook said.
She says the program offers what they call strands, which help students get first-hand experience in 15 different career fields.
Monday’s tour of the Couture site was for students in the skilled building trades strand.
Craig Griffey is the tech education teacher at Wauwatosa East High School. He says this group of students has been studying the skilled trades all year, but touring an active site gives them something that they can’t get in a classroom.
“We can look at videos of pile-driving all day long… It doesn’t make sense until you get out and see it in person,” Griffey said.
He also says it gives the students an opportunity to get a look at the “real picture of what they’re walking into.”
“As a teacher I’m trying to prepare them for a career after high school, and I have a responsibility to show them what the job site is really like.”
Megan is a student at Brookfield East and currently enrolled in the LAUNCH program for skilled building trades.
“It caught my eye because I’ve always loved working with my hands and it’s really cool because we get opportunities like this to come to actual work sites.”
She says that hands-on experience is something that will set her and others apart when they’re looking for jobs in the future.
“If you want to go into apprenticeships or whatever, you have that experience ahead of time so you’re a little ahead of some of the other people. It also gives you an idea of if you want to go into an apprenticeship or maybe if that’s not what you want to do.”
Eric Sadler, Senior Project Manager for the Coutire construction site, says students can take pride in being a part of something that will become a part of the Milwaukee skyline.
“The thing I always say is it’s very rewarding to, at the end of the day, be able to look at a project, a signature project like this, and say ‘hey, I was a part of that,'” Sadler said.
“And so I think that really inspires the youth.”
You can see a gallery of pictures from the Couture site below.