Local middle and high school students are spending this week learning trade skills as part of a free camp hosted by The Rosendin Foundation, the charitable arm of Rosendin Electric, a national electrical contractor with its East Coast headquarters in Sterling.

The program, called Camp Build, runs from July 13-17 this year at Rosendin’s workshop and includes around two dozen students from sixth to eighth grade who learn skills ranging from concrete to electrical to power tools. Many of their creations are items they can take home with them, such as a lamp with an outlet socket, a birdhouse, and concrete stepping stones.

Mike Murphy, workforce development coordinator for Rosendin’s East Coast division, oversees the event.

“We have a variety of different things going on, just to give them some knowledge, let the use the tools hands on, give them an idea,” Murphy said. “We talk about different trades, people come in from that particular trade and talk about what they do and what it’s like and just try to establish some idea of what construction is like as a career path.”

Murphy said the construction industry only hires two or three new tradesmen for every five that retire. Data center and housing construction is booming in Loudoun, but most of the country isn’t seeing that obvious growth. Despite that, though, electricians are seeing a critical shortage of manpower.

“We’re growing at twice the rate of every other occupation,” said Murphy. “But with that, you need everything else. … We need project managers, we need safety, we need people to do procurement, ordering the materials, and engineers.”

Showing kids all the different career paths available in the trades is an important part of the event and of Murphy’s job.

“There are so many career paths,” he said. “I came into the trade, worked my way up … went into supervision, and now I’m in workforce development, giving back and trying to help the trade.”

Even students who want to work with computers and AI have a place in construction. Murphy said every project now has a slew of models, including 3D models, developed to ensure everything fits together properly.

“Electricity’s not going anywhere,” he said. “We might change how we develop it, how we get it, but electricity itself, everybody in the world’s gonna need a place in their house to plug in their vehicle at some point.”

Murphy said the last generation thought everyone needed to go to college to succeed, and part of his job is telling kids—and parents—that that’s not true. Many brand-new electricians make well over $130,000 annually without even working overtime.

Tool brands, like Milwaukee, donate the materials used in the event.

The camp is run by a group of Rosendin employees, as well as a former program participants, who volunteer their time to oversee the events. One of the volunteers, company procurement lead Ashton Griffith, said the volunteers are there to make sure “all of the kids feel included” and that safety rules are followed.

“With the hands-on projects as well, it’s important, because some of these tasks are hard. … We’re there to encourage them to not give up.”

“I love being able to volunteer with the program,” said Griffith, adding that she comes from a trade family and hopes her son goes into the business. “I very much encourage the kids to try things before making that lifelong decision of what they want to do forever.”

Two of the students, Annabelle and Andrew, told Loudoun Now that the program gives them that chance.

“It means a lot,” Annabelle said. “I’ve seen my family grow in the electrical contract work because my uncle grew a business in it, and I would love to just see it an be part of it. … If you don’t want to go to college or you’re not interested in a textbook career, I would say go into a trade.”

Andrew agreed. He said the trades are “fun and can be very worth the time” and said the camp is “good experience if you want to get into the field.”