KALISPELL — A group of Flathead High School students had a chance to showcase their heavy equipment construction skills on Wednesday.
“Actually driving the heavy equipment, learning how to operate it, and be productive with it,” said Kalispell Schools Work-Based Learning Director Mike Kelly.
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The Kalispell School District partners with the Montana Contractors Association to participate in the Build Montana Initiative.
“As you can see around here, they have front loaders, they have skid vehicles, all the big things that you see in commercial construction,” said Kelly.
Kelly said the semester-long program teaches students hands-on lessons working with heavy machinery.
“They do their classroom work, but their love and joy is actually getting into the machinery and to see their skill set being developed and improving over the course of a semester is just a great story.”
Montana Contractors Association Workforce Director Hailee Olsen said the hands-on curriculum helps prepare students for potential construction jobs after high school.
“That ranges anything from going to see a highway being built, a bridge being built, the commercial side of construction, they get to go on those job sites,” said Olsen.
Flathead High School student Xander Fuller recommends the workforce program to his fellow classmates.
“Even if you don’t know that heavy machinery is what you want to get into, it just provides you so many more options you know, I didn’t even think I would like this kind of stuff but getting in it and actually being able to work on it was great, I thought it was a really amazing opportunity for me,” said Fuller.
Kelly said the high school levy that just passed in Kalispell will help fund school-based workforce programs like this one.
“Reinforces the notion that we really need to pay attention to our workforce in the Flathead Valley and these students are potential members of that workforce,” said Kelly.
