OCM BOCES McEvoy students attend Construction Career Day

Seventeen OCM BOCES Construction Technology students from the McEvoy Education Center in Cortland, New York, were among the nearly 600 others from 19 school districts in the 2014 Southern Tier of New York that recently took part in a day-long Construction Career Day.

The Southern Tier Construction Career Day held Wednesday, October 8, at the Broome County Highway Department facility in Chenango Bridge, featured exhibits by a variety of organizations and schools associated with the construction industry as well as trade displays and heavy equipment demonstrations. For many students, the hands-on experience included the opportunity for supervised operation of heavy equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes and dump trucks.

Construction Career Day is designed to introduce high school students to the career opportunities and unlimited potential for advancement within the construction industry. The event is organized by a consortium of groups, including the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), the Broome County Highway Department, Broome-Tioga Workforce New York, Broome-Tioga BOCES and several local companies and trade unions involved in the construction industry.

The program is directly supported by the Federal Highway Administration through the NYSDOT, which provides a grant to help fund the program around New York state. The grant includes costs for busing, insurance and lunch. In addition, Broome-Tioga Workforce New York provides grant funding to offset costs associated with the event. There is no cost to participating schools.