Speaker 1: A couple weeks ago, we told you the story of
Speaker 1: high school juniors who were getting seventy thousand dollars a
Speaker 1: year job offers because, among other things, they didn't want
Speaker 1: to go to college and get a degree in left
Speaker 1: handed medieval puppetry. They wanted to do something where their
Speaker 1: skills would be used immediately, and for many of these
Speaker 1: cases in mechanical ways, working with their hands and getting
Speaker 1: paid right away. And one of the places that allows
Speaker 1: you to do that is the Heavy Metal Summer Experience
Speaker 1: sheet metal piping, electrical plumbing trades at the Heavy Metal
Speaker 1: Summer Experience. Angie Simon is executive director and co founder
Speaker 1: of Heavy Metal Summer Experience, and she joins us now. First, Angie,
Speaker 1: thanks for taking time for us today.
Speaker 2: Garry, I really appreciate you having me on. Thank you
Speaker 2: very much.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm the father of a son who did not
Speaker 1: want to go to college. He wanted to work with
Speaker 1: his hands, and he's been doing that. I'm i'm I
Speaker 1: love the idea, I love the the creativity. I guess
Speaker 1: even though that seems like we kind of fell away
Speaker 1: from the old trades when it comes to getting jobs.
Speaker 3: Where where did this come from?
Speaker 2: Where?
Speaker 3: Did Heavy Metal Summer Experience come from?
Speaker 2: Well, Gary, I was the president and CEO of a
Speaker 2: mechanical contracting firm up here in in northern California. I'm
Speaker 2: in the San Francisco Bay area, and you know, I think,
Speaker 2: I think I realized we were a union contractor. We
Speaker 2: had sheet melon pipe fitters, and I realized that so
Speaker 2: many of the kids in the neighborhoods they all expect
Speaker 2: to go to college, but many of the kids weren't
Speaker 2: excited about it. They didn't want to go to college.
Speaker 2: So I decided we were in a we were neighbors
Speaker 2: with an underserved area, East Palo Alto, and we decided
Speaker 2: that we would run a summer camp in our shop
Speaker 2: to teach the East Palao walto high schoolers about the
Speaker 2: trades because a lot of them weren't going to go
Speaker 2: to college. And it was I did that. I decided
Speaker 2: to do this, and my friend up in Seattle, Recurrementson,
Speaker 2: decided to do it with me. The two of us
Speaker 2: kind of formed what we decided to name Heavy Metal
Speaker 2: Summer Experience, and it was basically a summer camp to
Speaker 2: teach high schoolers about the mechanical, lexical and plumbing trades,
Speaker 2: and the first summer it was just an amazing experience.
Speaker 2: These kids and their parents were so appreciative. Many of
Speaker 2: these kids didn't even know how to use a tape measure,
Speaker 2: and now all of a sudden, a bunch of them
Speaker 2: have been in our trades. This was back in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one.
Speaker 1: I've railed about this for a long time since somebody
Speaker 1: paid me to sit in front of a microphone. And
Speaker 1: that is that we complain, not we You and I
Speaker 1: don't complain about this. People who are younger than us
Speaker 1: complaining they don't have the money to buy a house,
Speaker 1: but they're also not doing the math or the realization
Speaker 1: of well, you went to four year college, you got
Speaker 1: a degree in philosophy or whatever you got, and you
Speaker 1: did it all on student loans.
Speaker 3: You're never going to be able to afford a house
Speaker 3: at that point.
Speaker 1: But if you work in the trades, you work with
Speaker 1: your hands, even while you get your philosophy degree, you're
Speaker 1: going to be paid for actual work.
Speaker 3: Is do you see that as well? Am I am?
Speaker 3: I crazy?
Speaker 2: No, not at all? You know, I tell the story
Speaker 2: so I'm retired now, I'm in my sixties. But when
Speaker 2: I started at Western Allied and I was there thirty
Speaker 2: five years. I had gone to college for five years,
Speaker 2: which is kind of the typical. I enjoyed that last
Speaker 2: year and I worked for one other company for a year,
Speaker 2: so I'd been out of college, I mean out of
Speaker 2: high school for six years when I started at Western
Speaker 2: Allied and there was a pipefitter that was my age,
Speaker 2: I think by maybe a year older, and he had
Speaker 2: just bought his first house in the Bay Area and
Speaker 2: I just barely got out of college and was paying
Speaker 2: my parents back. I didn't have any student loans because
Speaker 2: my parents were able to help me. But the fact
Speaker 2: that he was able to buy a house in the
Speaker 2: Bay Area because he started at eighteen years old and
Speaker 2: been working for six years, and he had part of
Speaker 2: that time he lived at home with his folks, and
Speaker 2: he saved enough money to buy a house. So absolutely,
Speaker 2: that's I mean, we all get a late start. I mean,
Speaker 2: the average age of people going into the apprenticeships right
Speaker 2: now is twenty seven years old, so they're obviously doing
Speaker 2: other things for the first ten years before when they
Speaker 2: get out of high school. And that's my thought was,
Speaker 2: let's encourage some of these high school kids to join
Speaker 2: the unions and the trades right out of high school
Speaker 2: and amazing, by the time they're twenty five years old,
Speaker 2: they're going to be a journey person and making six figures.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's I just don't think people understand that the
Speaker 1: amount of money that you can make immediately, whether it's
Speaker 1: a welding like an AA degree in welding from a
Speaker 1: community college somewhere, which here in California is basically free,
Speaker 1: you're going to be able to get out there and
Speaker 1: have a steady job with good benefits. Often is there
Speaker 1: a specific area or a specific trade that you think
Speaker 1: is the most in need of bodies right now?
Speaker 2: Well, I do think the three we focus on that
Speaker 2: we call them the skilled trades and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing.
Speaker 2: I will say that I think going forward all three
Speaker 2: need people desperately. But electrically, I think electricians are going
Speaker 2: to be where the real shortage is because of all
Speaker 2: the electrification as well as a solar the energy across
Speaker 2: the nation level ship factory is being built. I really
Speaker 2: do think we're going to be really short of electricians.
Speaker 2: But right now in construction we are short four hundred
Speaker 2: thousand jobs. Now I mean people. We don't have enough
Speaker 2: people to fill four hundred thousand jobs and forty percent
Speaker 2: of our industries retiring in the next five to seven years.
Speaker 2: So you know, if you're interested in getting a good
Speaker 2: job that pays well, get into the trades because boy,
Speaker 2: there is so much opportunity in the next ten years.
Speaker 3: What's your favorite trade? What do you like to tinker with?
Speaker 2: Well, I guess I would say that probably I worked
Speaker 2: for a sheet metal and piping contractor, and I guess
Speaker 2: I have a little favorite towards sheet metal, just because
Speaker 2: I think the stainless and the welding and it's kind
Speaker 2: of fun. I like seat metal, but that's I think
Speaker 2: piping is good too, but I don't. I'm a little
Speaker 2: more afraid of electrical.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that'll give you a good buzz.
Speaker 1: If if you're not careful, it'll it'll let you know
Speaker 1: when you do something wrong.
Speaker 3: All right, can you think matter?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: Andy? Can you hang on further segment?
Speaker 1: I want to talk specifically about what goes on during
Speaker 1: the camps, where they are and how people can.
Speaker 3: Sign up for those I'd love to all right.
Speaker 1: Angie Simon is executive director and co founder of Heavy
Speaker 1: Metal Summer Experience. If you're interested, if your kids are interested,
Speaker 1: if you want your kid to be interested, you can
Speaker 1: go to HMS dot org Heavy Metal Summer Experience HMSE
Speaker 1: dot org. A great location map as on there, including
Speaker 1: a bunch here in the West, the City of Industry
Speaker 1: Commerce down in San Diego, you got Ventura. All of
Speaker 1: these places are going to be having summer camps with
Speaker 1: Heavy Metal Summer Experience. We'll come back with Angie here
Speaker 1: in just a moment. We've been talking with Angie Simon.
Speaker 1: She's the executive director and co founder of Heavy Metal
Speaker 1: Summer Experience to help expose young kids to the trades.
Speaker 1: We need more people in the trades, sheet metal, piping, plumbing, trades.
Speaker 3: You can explore all of them.
Speaker 1: You become part of a team that's going to build
Speaker 1: community in all of this. Each of the camps that
Speaker 1: they run is unique, and there are several of them,
Speaker 1: not just here in California, but throughout the country if
Speaker 1: you're listening in other parts of the world. Angie, the
Speaker 1: Heavy Metal Summer Experience, what is it? What does it
Speaker 1: entail for say, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old kid?
Speaker 2: Well, Gary, every camp is free to the kids, so
Speaker 2: they go in and they don't pay anything for this camp.
Speaker 2: Typically they're going to be thirty to forty hours of camp,
Speaker 2: So they are different schedules depending on the location. Some
Speaker 2: of them will do it in one week, some of
Speaker 2: them will do it in two weeks in the afternoons,
Speaker 2: because they're often run in contractors shops or in union
Speaker 2: training center, So it depends on the shop. For example,
Speaker 2: if it's a contractor's shop, it might have to be
Speaker 2: in the afternoons. So they're going to run it for
Speaker 2: two weeks in the afternoons. But the day one they
Speaker 2: show up, they get a set of red wing boots
Speaker 2: that we have a Metal Summer Experience paid for, and
Speaker 2: they get their own set of work boots because that
Speaker 2: makes you feel like you're really in working in the shop.
Speaker 2: And then for throughout that forty hours, they're going to
Speaker 2: be doing sheet metal piping, it's gonna be welding, they're
Speaker 2: going to be so making projects. Make a toolbox that
Speaker 2: they can take home, They make a lamp out of
Speaker 2: piping that they can take home, They learn how to
Speaker 2: wire the lamp. They just do a whole bunch of projects.
Speaker 2: We talked a lot about safety. We talk a lot
Speaker 2: about well, we also talk a lot about technology because
Speaker 2: I think people don't realize how much technology is used
Speaker 2: in construction nowadays. Robotics and AI, all of that's being
Speaker 2: used in construction, so it doesn't mean we're just digging
Speaker 2: ditches and construction anymore. And then when they're done getting
Speaker 2: toward the end of that, they get a graduation metal,
Speaker 2: the stainless seal metal, and they get a bag of
Speaker 2: hand tools from either Milwaukee or Duwalt, which are partners
Speaker 2: of ours for heavy Metal Summer Experience. We have some
Speaker 2: amazing partners. So it's a great week of them learning
Speaker 2: a little bit about what it means to be in
Speaker 2: the trades, and you know, they you can just see
Speaker 2: how much they really enjoy working with their hands.
Speaker 3: Is this.
Speaker 1: Is this a replacement for the lack of shop classes
Speaker 1: that we've seen in high schools taken away?
Speaker 2: I feel very strongly it is. I mean, I feel like,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure my age, but there was still
Speaker 2: shop classes when I was in high school. But I
Speaker 2: feel that if we had more of these shop classes
Speaker 2: and vogue tech type classes in our high schools, we
Speaker 2: wouldn't have to do this because they would learn about that.
Speaker 2: So I kind of there's some states that are much
Speaker 2: better than California in regards to that that have better
Speaker 2: shops in their high schools. But really it's just a way.
Speaker 2: I think we also need to change of perception about
Speaker 2: cut construction that people we need to understand that's not
Speaker 2: like a secondary backstep job. I mean, this is a
Speaker 2: really great career. You get benefits. You've get health care
Speaker 2: and pensions, and I mean you can retire at fifty
Speaker 2: five if you start at eighteen, and you're going to
Speaker 2: have full benefits at that point. So I do think
Speaker 2: that if we could get this back into our high schools,
Speaker 2: then maybe we wouldn't need these summer camps anymore. But listen,
Speaker 2: I started in twenty twenty one with two camps and
Speaker 2: twenty eight kids, and this summer we have fifty one
Speaker 2: camps across the United States and Canada, and I have
Speaker 2: almost nine hundred kids in the camp. Wow, it's just
Speaker 2: gone crazy.
Speaker 1: And for the kids, or for maybe adults that are
Speaker 1: listening that have kids that are in this world and
Speaker 1: you know they're mechanically inclined, or they're not cut out
Speaker 1: for college, or however you want to put it. This
Speaker 1: can easily lead to a job just from the instructors
Speaker 1: that are involved with the camps, right.
Speaker 3: I mean, they'll hire some of these kids right away.
Speaker 2: The instructors or the contractors that are running the camps,
Speaker 2: and they in the camps, they meet the union folks,
Speaker 2: they meet how they learn how to apply for the apprenticeship.
Speaker 2: They learn what it takes. And many times the contractors,
Speaker 2: if they're hosting a camp, will hire the graduates on
Speaker 2: the spot and say come work as a pre apprentice,
Speaker 2: you know, make sure you can show up on time
Speaker 2: for six months and everything else, and then they get
Speaker 2: them in the apprenticeship. So we have in La in
Speaker 2: the La La area, we have three camps this summer,
Speaker 2: and well actually four depending on what you call the
Speaker 2: La area. But we have one in Commerce, we have
Speaker 2: one in the City of Industry. We have one in
Speaker 2: San Diego, and one in Ventura next those are all
Speaker 2: most of our camps are pretty well full this summer.
Speaker 2: It's kind of late at this point, but next summer
Speaker 2: I think we will also add Pomona. We may also
Speaker 2: add Vista and Fresno potentially, so in the California area.
Speaker 2: But again they're all over the United States, and we
Speaker 2: even have some in Canada, and they can check our
Speaker 2: website out. If you google heavy Metal Summer Experience you'll
Speaker 2: find us.
Speaker 1: And you're also looking for hosts as well, not just
Speaker 1: in participants, but you're looking for people and companies that
Speaker 1: will host these camps.
Speaker 2: True, true, And like, for example, I just talked to
Speaker 2: somebody in Vista. They have actually have a high school
Speaker 2: in Vista that does do welding, which I thought was
Speaker 2: very exciting. They'd like to do a summer camp there.
Speaker 2: And Visa is I think. I think it's northeast of
Speaker 2: San Diego. So we're going to work on trying to
Speaker 2: see if we can make that work for the folks
Speaker 2: and have them be a host next summer. But we
Speaker 2: are looking for host contractors or training centers to help
Speaker 2: us with that. We don't provide actually run the camp.
Speaker 2: We support them with all the resources to run the camp,
Speaker 2: and we kind of handhold them the first summer. And
Speaker 2: I'll tell you the thing is, we get pretty much
Speaker 2: one hundred percent return from the host. So if I
Speaker 2: had fifty one camps this summer, I'll start with fifty
Speaker 2: one next summer, and then I'll probably add another twenty
Speaker 2: or thirty, so we're busy.
Speaker 1: Well, that's great, and listen, this is an exciting thing
Speaker 1: because I'm a huge proponent of this kind of work.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge proponent of this kind of availability of
Speaker 1: this work for kids because we've turned away from it
Speaker 1: for so long that we're starting to see the effects
Speaker 1: of that. Where you know, people don't know how to
Speaker 1: if people don't even know how to fix stuff around
Speaker 1: their own house, and you'd be willing to you know,
Speaker 1: you're going to pay several hundred bucks and if you're
Speaker 1: on the receiving end of that's several hundred bucks.
Speaker 3: Good for you. And this is a good way to
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 2: Angie. God, it's not that hard to change out your
Speaker 2: garbage disposal. I mean, if you know how, if you've
Speaker 2: learned a little bit of things, but instead of having
Speaker 2: to hire somebody to do it. So I do think
Speaker 2: it's time for us to slowly think change a little bit.
Speaker 2: I'm a mechanical engineer. I went to college here in California,
Speaker 2: but I still think it's so important that so many
Speaker 2: kids this is what you need them to do. And
Speaker 2: if you know, look at our website if you want
Speaker 2: to help this. We also would be happy to accept
Speaker 2: any donations anybody give us. So, Mary, thank you for
Speaker 2: having me on.
Speaker 3: I really appreciate what One personal question is, where'd you
Speaker 3: go to college?
Speaker 2: Yes, I went to and San Luis Obisto. Oh yeah, my.
Speaker 1: Father graduated from cal Poly. My daughter just graduated last
Speaker 1: summer from from cal Poly.
Speaker 2: So that's my and my son graduated from cal Poly.
Speaker 2: So that's good. We got the connection. So that's and
Speaker 2: there's a there's a college just hands on, hands on
Speaker 2: that we learned by doing. So they really do stress it.
Speaker 2: I put the welding class at cal polic.
Speaker 3: That's literally their their slogan is learned by doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is. And I was terrible at welding. I
Speaker 2: learned that really quick.
Speaker 1: Well, it's an absolute pleasure to meet you, Angie, and
Speaker 1: we wish you the best of luck with Heavy Metal
Speaker 1: Summer Experience again, if you want information about it, go
Speaker 1: to h m s E dot org v Metal Summer
Speaker 1: Experience h M s E dot org with all the
Speaker 1: information about the current camps that are going on this summer,
Speaker 1: about future camps that are there, uh and encourage your
Speaker 1: kids to get involved.
Speaker 3: Angie.
Speaker 2: Thank you Jerry, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 2: I love you. Help them and get the word out.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we'll talk again. I promise this is a it's
Speaker 1: too good of a program to ignore, all right, Angie S.
Speaker 1: I'm their executive director, co founder of Heavy Metal Summer
Speaker 1: Experience h M s E dot org.