LPS students build career options during trip to construction fair

May 16, 2025

Southwest High School sophomore Morgan grinned as she used an excavating machine to delicately drop a red, white and blue basketball into a plastic bucket.
 
Hundreds of Lincoln Public Schools students scored the same type of winning experiences at the 2025 Lincoln Construction Fair. More than 25 area businesses provided a variety of hands-on activities and valuable networking opportunities at the event, which took place at Haymarket Park. Students from all eight LPS high schools and surrounding communities drove bulldozers, smoothed out slabs of cement and enjoyed bird’s-eye views of the fair from an electrician’s work bucket.
 
Morgan smiled with friends as she shared about her moments behind the excavating machine’s control panel. She was glad to have a chance to learn more about careers ranging from roof repair to construction management at the fair.
 
“It’s huge,” Morgan said. “We’re all high schoolers, and we’re all looking into what we’re going to do as a career. I think it’s huge to showcase that this is a thing that anybody can go into.”

 
Southeast High School juniors Davis, River, Max and Esdra enjoyed a similar activity in another section of the parking lot. The friends came to the fair because they wanted to explore multiple career paths and talk with business representatives.
 
“If you want to pursue this type of career, it’s important to come here,” Davis said. “You’re exposed to all of these different jobs and how you do it and what to do.”

 
Home Builders Association of Lincoln (HBAL) representative Benjamin Klein said he has watched the interest level in trades-based careers skyrocket over the past few years. He chairs the HBAL careers and construction board and has met many people at previous construction fairs. He said nearly 400 students signed up to participate in the 2025 event, which was an increase of more than 100 high schoolers from last spring.
 
“We see a lot of kids going on these paths,” Klein said. “A four-year school is not necessarily for everybody, and this is an opportunity for them to see what’s out there and available for them besides just going to a four-year university.”
 
Klein said one of the fair’s top benefits is highlighting dozens of potential career avenues for students to consider. They learn that the trades include both indoor and outdoor professions that are available in cities, towns and villages across Nebraska.
 
“Everybody thinks of just the construction worker, but there’s everyone from office staff to project management to the guys that are in the field doing the work,” Klein said. “There are so many opportunities as we talk about the trades themselves for the kids to get into and grow.”

 
Northwest High School sophomore Shane said the opportunity to discover more about these fields is why he chose to come to the fair. He enjoyed last year’s event so much that he decided to make a return trip this spring. He had already tried a handful of activities within his first 30 minutes at Haymarket Park.
 
“I’ve been interested in working with machinery like this for a while,” Shane said. “I’d definitely consider doing it.”
 
Morgan is also looking into the possibility of becoming a trades-based professional. She is taking a Woods Manufacturing course at Southwest this semester and enjoys completing projects with her family.
 
“I’ve loved just working with things since I’ve been little,” Morgan said. “My dad is big into building stuff, so I’ve kind of been around tools for a while.”

 
Klein said the interest level from students like Shane and Morgan has grown as teenagers realize the trades can provide a comfortable income. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics listed the annual median wage of a Nebraska construction manager as $96,760 in May 2024. The median annual wage was $71,340 for reinforcing iron and rebar workers, $63,310 for a boilermaker, $62,880 for a plumber, $60,060 for a brickmason and $50,220 for tile and stone setters.
 
“As the years have gone on, this is a place for people to do really well and make a really good living,” Klein said. “Where maybe it didn’t feel that way in 1980, but today, this is where people really want to kind of get into.”
 
River said the satisfaction of working in an enjoyable career was also something to consider. He and his Southeast friends spent time maneuvering several types of equipment at the construction fair.
 
“I like the big machinery,” River said. “It’s fun to operate.”

 
Lincoln Public Schools offers a wide variety of skilled and technical sciences (STS) courses for students to participate in. Classes begin in middle school and encompass fields such as architecture, engineering, woods manufacturing, welding, machine tool manufacturing, robotics, automotive repair and aviation. Many students are also involved in the SkillsUSA organization, which provides additional hands-on STS opportunities for them.
 
Klein said the construction fair was one example of how Lincoln-area professionals encourage each other every day in the trades.
 
“There’s a ton of camaraderie,” Klein said. “It doesn’t matter whether the people are in the exact same trade themselves or if they are in different trades. Everybody really wants to back the community and back the kids to be a part of this.”
 
Learn more about career and technical education at Lincoln Public Schools by visiting our website at home.lps.org/cte/.
 
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