JaShawn Graves is using a grinder to smooth out the edges of a weld he’s just done in the sheet metal shop at Gunrau Company in Oak Creek.
There are sparks flying and landing on his thick jacket sleeves and the workbench around him.
Graves is one of 20 students from all around southeastern Wisconsin participating in a weeklong Heavy Metal Summer Experience. Students apply ahead of time and must be interviewed and accepted to the free camp, which is hosted by different sponsors and unions across 29 states.
Graves just graduated from Nicolet High School and despite his youth, this isn’t his first time welding. He’s interested in a career as an electrician.
“I really like working with my hands and I think it’s a really good alternative to college. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to do something where I’m hands-on and working on things and creating things I know I’d like," he says.
Trades appeal to students wary of college debt, cost of living concerns
This competitive summer camp is basically a launch pad for a career in the trades.
The students, some as young as 16, travel to different shops around the Milwaukee metro area and learn skills, meet folks in the industry and end the week with a swag bag that includes steel-toed boots and all the basics from Milwaukee Tool.
Jill Ackerman says the idea is to show them that the trades offer an opportunity to work with their hands, meet great people and avoid college debt. She’s an assistant director of workforce development for the Plumbing Mechanical Sheet Metal Contractors’ Alliance.
“A lot of high schoolers, when you’re thinking about what you want to do after you graduate, it’s from what you’ve been exposed to, right?" she says. "Now when you start to bring in the trades and open up the door to show different career pathways, they’re like ‘Oh my goodness, I didn’t know I could go and do this. And I can make a lot of money, a good lifestyle out of it.'”
This is part of the same argument that the skilled trades have been making forever: That college isn’t for everyone and there are great career paths that exist outside a four-year degree.
But that argument is landing even more strongly as costs of college and general costs of living skyrocket. Young students are increasingly skeptical about taking on college debt, and social media has connected them with tradespeople sharing what their work days and annual salaries look like.
Unprompted, several students at the Heavy Metals camp said they’d seen these types of videos. It makes Port Washington High School student Logan Prochaska excited for what his career can look like, and has even prompted him to do some shopping.
“I went on TikTok actually and I bought a welder for $80. It’s no gas though. And I’ve been playing around in the garage," he said.
Another big piece of the 2026 argument for learning a skilled trade? Protection from AI taking your job.
"Nothing like AI or a computer is going to take the place of an actual human," says Tara Jensema, distribution business professional manager for West Allis-based Herkowski Stickler & Associates, one of the sponsors of the summer camp.
Girls take on metalworking summer camp: 'It's not just a man's job'
Away from the welding stations, Ava Ayres is working in the copper shop soldering several pipes together. Ayres attends Oak Creek High School.
She says that being a woman in the skilled trades means she’ll be forging a path forward for others. And it’s a boost for her own self confidence, too.
“When you get out here and you start doing stuff, the guys start to realize that women are very capable of doing it. Even today, some of them were saying how we were doing stuff better than the men," she says.
"I feel like it kind of makes me stronger, because I can prove my point that I can do it better than you. It’s not just a man’s job.”
Do you have a question about education or how schools work in our area? Submit it here to WUWM education reporter Katherine Kokal.
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