by Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
Those were not just heavy bass lines and mile-a-second drums making noise at this year’s PlanetFest. The sounds of hammers driving nails proved to be nearly as popular as the Red Bull and tattoo booths.
Members of the Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Apprenticeship Training Program attended PlanetFest, an annual music festival organized by FM-107.3 and held annually at the Fairgrounds, with one goal in mind: gain new young recruits.
“We wanted to get young people to come up there so we could talk to them about the apprenticeship program,” said Keith Ward, executive chairman of the Apprenticeship Program for NEFBA. “We wanted to generate interest in the construction industry, whether it’s electrical, carpentry, plumbing or heating and air.”
The organization set up a nail-driving contest to lure young rockers in. NEFBA supplied the hammers, nails and 6-by-6 boards participants used and there were about a dozen volunteers from the apprenticeship program and area construction companies including Thomas May Construction, Aulden & White Construction, Haskell Company and Moore Electric.
The booth was a lot of work, but proved successful.
NEFBA Apprenticeship Training Coordinator Thompson Taylor said it was a little exhausting — he had to preset the nails for the just under 500 people who stopped by the booth. The participants filled out waivers to participate, which were later used like raffle tickets for a guitar that was autographed by bands playing in the festival. The waivers will also be used to contact participants when it’s time to enroll in the apprenticeship program.
“We were a little surprised (at the turnout),” said Taylor. “We heard from promoters and our marketing people that our booth was the most active.”
Ward said the booth was more well attended than some of the military branch booths. Ward, who is the vice president and project manager at Thomas May Construction, said there was a good pool of candidates who could potentially enter the apprenticeship program, although it won’t be known how many participate until the enrollment period in March and June.
Ward said he’s been to PlanetFest before, enjoys some of the music and had fun at the booth as well.
There were a couple of people there that were actually good swinging hammers, according to Ward, but they didn’t beat him.
“I can still drive a hammer,” he said, adding there were a lot of young women who participated. “A lot of young women want to get into the construction industry and we are equal opportunity employers.”
“It was a great place to find our target range,” said Taylor, who saw festival attendees from age 16 to the late 50s. “It really put us out there.”
The apprenticeship program is designed to educate and train individuals to become skilled journeymen in the different facets of the construction industry. Those who qualify are hired to work for participating employers and also attend school two nights a week for four years. NEFBA provides on-the-job-training.
The Apprenticeship Training Program is more than 30 years old at NEFBA and many of its graduates have gone on to become local business owners and influential people in the construction industry, according to Ward.