SAN MATEO – The San Mateo County Event Center & Fair will host Fortitude Careers’ Summer Build Program this year. The 8-week program offers a curriculum for Life Skills, Careers Services, and Construction Job Readiness for young adults (18 to 24 years old) interested in a construction trade career.
Fortitude is a non-profit organization offering free training for young adults seeking a career in the trades. Its mission is to provide a life-changing opportunity as an alternative to college. Its multifaceted mission is to serve young adults in their ambition to build a successful career in the construction trades. By helping young adults to develop practical, technical, and life mastery
skills, Fortitude supports the needs of the community, industry, and workforce.
“Patti Bentley and I have worked for two years to develop this program,” says Nicole Davis, Co-Founder and CEO of Fortitude Careers. “It is truly a labor of love. For us to know that the effort that we have put into this provides hope and promise for the young adults in our program is a gift to us and hopefully to them.”
On July 11th, their Summer Build Program officially started at the San Mateo County Event Center & Fair. Those interested in joining a union can be fast-tracked into an apprenticeship by one of Fortitude’s sponsors as a carpenter, electrician, plumber, laborer, etc. Others may go to college to pursue formal education required for upper-level management or roles in Construction Engineering, Architecture, Design, or Project Management. The professional spectrum for the trades is vast – participants may decide to work in support of the industry as product reps, administrative roles, inspectors, and many more.
“We are delighted and thankful to host Fortitude Careers,” says Dana Stoehr, CEO of the San Mateo County Event Center & Fair. “As a non profit organization we continually look for ways to support other non-profits serving our community. We are so happy these deserving young people are being trained at our Event Center.”
Participants have a lot to say about the program as well: “I have learned more about math through two months in Fortitude than in 4 years in high school,” says one, while another states, “My mom is so happy I’m in Fortitude – she says she can already see a difference in my maturity.”
Program participants are spending their summer to become job-ready by the end of the program. Eight weeks of 8 hours a day spent studying the necessary skills to bring value to the workforce. Meet those eager, intelligent, dedicated young adults at the Reverse Job Fair event on September 2nd at the San Mateo County Event Center, or contact Fortitude Careers at [email protected] for more information about adding them to your team.
ABOUT THE SAN MATEO EVENT CENTER
During COVID, the San Mateo Event Center was unable to host most events but instead played a vital role in protecting our health care workers and most vulnerable populations by serving as a COVID-19 testing site, operations hub, and supply center, 250-bed temporary overflow hospital, and vaccine distribution center for the San Francisco Bay Area. To date, the Event Center has administered 250,000 COVID-19 tests and vaccinated more than 90,000 individuals.
ABOUT THE SAN MATEO COUNTY FAIR
The award-winning San Mateo County Fair is the Peninsula’s premier community event for family fun and entertainment. The San Mateo County Fair strives to provide a diverse experience through education, inspiration, and entertainment. The annual Fair represents a celebration of our community’s talent, interests, innovations, and rich agricultural and artistic heritage.
