RED OAK—Students put on their safety glasses and got to work building circuit boards with engineers from Oncor Electric.
Once the boards lit up, high fives and laughter immediately rippled across the room.
Seven Oncor engineers and managers visited with Career and Technical education classes at Red Oak High School to encourage students to pursue a career in engineering and STEM field jobs.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in occupations related to STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—is projected to grow to more than 9 million by the year 2022. That’s an increase of about 1 million jobs over current employment levels.
“Red Oak is definitely one of the top districts in Dallas/Fort Worth, especially in the areas of Career and Technology education,” Justin Loth, a senior engineer with Oncor said. “Now is the time for us to start recruiting these talented students and to answer their questions about how to become engineers, technicians and line workers.”
Oncor Commits To Local Hiring
When students found out about Oncor’s starting salary of $72,000 and excellent benefits, a number of students began raising their hands and asking questions.
“At Oncor, we have a real commitment to hiring local students and helping them further their careers,” Loth said.
Red Oak ISD means business in its Career and Technical program.
“We continually look for meaningful and relevant methods to inform our students about future careers,” says CTE director Lisa Menton.
“The outstanding quality of our program has resulted in businesses such as Oncor now approaching our district in order to hire Red Oak ISD Career and Technical students. Oncor provides a unique opportunity for our students to use their career readiness and skills to obtain employment in high demand, highly skilled, and high wage occupations. Red Oak ISD looks forward to growing this business partnership with Oncor, along with our other business partners, to help our students prepare for their next step after graduation.”
