Gillette Stadium Skills Expo Draws 3,000+ Students to Explore the Trades

RYE, NH — Bring Back the Trades (BBTT), a nonprofit devoted to strengthening the expert trades pipeline, marked a significant milestone with its first-ever Massachusetts Expertise Expo, held at Gillette Stadium and introduced by F.W. Webb Company.

Greater than 3,000 college students, households, and business professionals attended the October 25 occasion, exploring 100 hands-on reveals designed to offer younger folks an actual take a look at what commerce careers contain—on the job, on the instruments, and within the area.

“Seeing Gillette Stadium stuffed with college students, households, and professionals all there to rejoice the trades was unforgettable,” mentioned Shana Brunye, Chief Operations Officer of Carry Again the Trades. “This occasion confirmed that the trades aren’t a fallback, they’re a basis. They construct communities, careers, and confidence. That’s what this motion is all about.”

Interactive Displays Put the Trades Entrance and Heart

Attendees engaged with welding simulators, robotics stations, stay development builds, plumbing demonstrations, and aviation shows—every designed to indicate how expert trades energy important work throughout each neighborhood. College students met tradespeople who wire, weld, repair, set up, and construct the methods behind trendy infrastructure, gaining publicity to profession paths that provide stability, development, and long-term alternative.

The primary stage featured Aaron Witt (BuildWitt), Demi Knight Clark (She Constructed This Metropolis), and Leon Garrett (Kenco Plumbing & Drains), alongside a particular look from two-time champion and New England Patriots alum Rob Ninkovich, whose household roots run deep within the ironworking commerce.

Scholarships Help College students Coming into Important Fields

Throughout the occasion, BBTT awarded $25,000 in scholarships—10 awards supporting college students pursuing careers throughout plumbing, automotive, aviation, development administration, and associated trades.

“I grew up across the trades—my grandfather’s within the trades, my associates are within the trades,” mentioned scholarship recipient Nicolas Eaton, of Rhode Island, who’s finding out plumbing. “It simply feels proper for me. The trades are the way in which to go.”

Business Companions Drive Workforce Growth Momentum

The Expo was formed by sturdy collaboration amongst New England employers and coaching companions. Organizations together with F.W. Webb Firm, Casella Waste Methods, Jap Propane & Oil, Kenco Plumbing & Drains, Lighthouse Credit score Union, Noso Labs, Optiline Enterprises, and quite a few vocational applications helped display how business and training can work collectively to construct the next-generation workforce.

“This occasion was proof of what can occur when companies and educators work aspect by aspect to encourage the subsequent era,” mentioned Steve Turner, Founder and Chief Government Officer of Carry Again the Trades. “Each demo, each dialog, each connection at Gillette helped somebody see what’s doable—and that’s precisely what we got down to do.”

“At F.W. Webb, we imagine the expert trades are the spine of each neighborhood,” added Sean Davis, Vice President of Advertising and marketing at F.W. Webb Firm. “Partnering with Carry Again the Trades lets us join instantly with college students and households—to indicate {that a} profession within the trades can supply not simply nice pay, however delight, goal, and lasting alternative.”

Increasing Expertise Expos Throughout New England

Carry Again the Trades will broaden its Expertise Expo collection throughout New England in 2026, creating extra alternatives for college students and employers to attach by means of hands-on coaching, technical demonstrations, and workforce improvement initiatives.

“That is only the start,” mentioned Turner. “Our aim is to maintain this momentum going, to verify college students in each state see that the trades aren’t simply jobs—they’re careers value celebrating.”

For extra info, go to bringbackthetrades.org.