SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU)– Two local organizations are hoping to get kids interested in skilled trades while they’re still in school.

The “Build My Future” event at the Expo Center hosted more than a thousand local high schoolers to give them an up-close and hands-on experience with the construction industry. While only some of the students attending the event are thinking about their careers, Terri Schlem, with the Home Builders’ Association, says the hope is to get them all thinking about trade jobs.

“What we want the kids to do is we want them to find something they enjoy and talk to the people that are here found out what they do, see if it’s something they’d like to do,” said Schelm.

During the event Robert Dandurand, the vice president of Metro Electric Inc. said plenty of kids were asking him questions and were overall interested in what it’s like to be an electrician.

“We’ve been pretty busy. I mean it started early this morning and we’ve had steady kids coming through here wiring up switches, and learning how to use electrical meters, and kinda messing with our stuff and teaching about the industry and why we do what we do,” said Dandurand.

“It’s pretty entertaining, I had a lot of fun seeing what other stuff you could do here. yeah,” said Christian Vanderbroek and Kameron Kraft, Washington High School Students.

Local home builders along with the Siouxland Construction Alliance hosted today’s event. 1,600 freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors signed up for today’s event, all from schools in the tri-state area.