Educating our Future Workers

Every school (hopefully) teaches the importance of getting a good job, and earning a living.

It’s one thing to tell students in a classroom. It’s another entirely to take them to a real workplace.

Max Weiss Company was again privileged to host a group of local students recently as part of Be the Spark, a program of business education tours organized by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. Twenty-five seventh-graders from Thurston Woods Elementary in Milwaukee, led by their teacher, Mr. Hines, saw up close the world of structural steel bending and custom metal fabrication.

They walked every part of the production floor. Chatted with our talented metal forming craftsmen. Heard from Paul Schulz, our President, about leading a company involved in construction metal forming and steel bar rolling.

The students, of course, had lots of questions: Do you have to go to college to work here? Do you only work with steel? How much weight can the overhead cranes lift? How does welding work? How long does each job take?

One asked Paul if he got a paycheck. He answered that he does, and segued into how Max Weiss Company offers opportunities for someone to make a good living even without a college degree. They can succeed with ambition, focus and hard work.

The students wore safety glasses on the production floor. Why are these so important, they asked? An explanation of shop safety followed. Their heads nodded.

Student tours are always refreshing. They remind us that, while we see curved structural steel daily in buildings, signs and vehicles, few people understand how steel bar bending works.

Kids don’t hold back. They ask whatever comes to mind. Nothing is off limits. Their candor is energizing, and oh-so-welcome.

Just like every business, Max Weiss Company needs future workers. Hopefully we sparked interest in these students. It’s a thrill, even for a few hours, to operate as a classroom.

Know someone looking for a career opportunity? E-mail Kate Klister at hr@maxweiss.com.