In events such Future Building—and I'm tooting my own horn, obviously—what happens is that we have approximately 20 of the unions come in, they have a hands-on booth, and the kids come in and get to try what that trade involves.
Virtual reality has become a big training tool. They can weld using a virtual welder. They can paint—spray paint, not brush and roll. They can go on a Genie. They have the virtual reality and are up on a Genie and are working. These training tools help real apprentices learn via virtual reality. It's safer and better. It's just like pilots. They train in virtual reality and are then much more apt to do well in the real world. We expose them to the tools this trade uses.
We have younger apprentices there who are obviously closer to their age. They ask, “What did you do? What were your challenges? Why do you like doing this?” There's a lot of interaction. Those are the kinds of things that really resonate and change people's attitudes. We take surveys of people coming in and we take them when they exit, and there's a dramatic change. They'll say, “Oh, I didn't know that.”
Kids nowadays love all the cool electronics and cool high-tech stuff. Well, let me tell you, if you see what the ROM did with the glass and the high-tech equipment.... The total stations are about $15,000. Guys have to train and use that equipment to build stuff now. It's not the old hammer and drill; it has become high tech, and you're not getting muddy all of the time.
That was my quote: You don't have to have a hammer and drill for the next 30 years.
Once you become a journeyperson, you can become a contractor. You can take some courses in project management and estimating and start your own company, or you can work for another company and be an estimator, or....
You don't have to be on the job site for the next 40 years. You can be, if you want, but there are many different job branches that come out of the skilled trades, and once you have your journeyperson, your C of Q, you can go on to bigger and better things.