Ghoufran Daghmoush was excited when she saw the steel structure. The Grade 7 student from Arcola School had never had the chance to try anything like it before.

“I learned how to put the bolts in,” Daghmoush said.

Daghmoush participated in the Ironworks booth at the Try-A-Trade event held Wednesday at Campus Regina Public. The event saw more than 600 Grade 7 and 8 students from across the city descend upon the school to try out different trades. Daghmoush wants to be a doctor, but still enjoyed the day full of learning about the trades.

The event was held in partnership with Skills Canada Saskatchewan and the Regina District Industry Education Council. Students had the chance to visit 25 different booths, ranging from robotics to hairstyling to carpentry.

“(Jobs in the trades are) well-paying jobs and they’re required to make society function properly. So we want to let people know early in their young years what opportunities there are for them,” said Al Gabert, executive director with Skills Canada Saskatchewan.

This was a first of its kind event. In the past, the groups have partnered together to host career events targeting high school students.

“We’ve decided to start with the middle years, and informing them and letting them experiment with some of these trades and technologies in their younger years. So that when it comes to their decision-making for high school they have some idea ahead of time what they might want to do,” Gabret said.

A constant lineup indicated the Ironworks booth was popular among students. At that booth, participants would get dressed up in safety gear and then be attached to a horizontal lifeline for safety. From there they walked across a beam which was slightly off the floor to a column where they would complete column splicing.

“We’re basically stacking them to get the next floor. That’s how the building goes up,” said Wayne Worrall, trade president with Ironworkers Local 771.

The booth also showed the students a video about the other work done by ironworkers, including crane building, direct steel maintenance and precasts for parkade construction.