NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth recently featured the launch of Be Pro Be Proud’s new mobile workshop in North Texas, where students can use virtual and augmented reality simulators to explore construction careers through hands-on scenarios. Led in Texas by the TEXO Foundation, the workshop is expected to visit high schools across Dallas-Fort Worth and engage more than 1,500 students during its first six months.
The story brings welcome attention to a mission Groove Jones has been proud to support through a growing series of gamified VR experiences. Our work with Be Pro Be Proud gives students a chance to step into skilled-trade roles, practice realistic tasks and see how those careers can translate into real opportunities.
Explore Our Work with Be Pro Be Proud:
Original Skilled-Trades VR Program
Diesel Technician “Truck Tech” VR Experience
Mobile Workshop hits the Road to Build Labor Pipeline
A workshop on wheels could do something good to reshape how students view careers in construction.
The Be Pro Be Proud mobile workshop launches in Coppell this week. Students can step inside and connect with advanced virtual reality and augmented reality simulators to see real-world construction scenarios.
By exposing students to careers in construction, the hope is they’ll want to join a field where there is a critical need for talent.
“The skilled, gap that everybody is facing is the number one bottleneck that’s keeping contractors from doing more work in DFW. And so, what we hope to do is help with that talent pipeline by bringing younger people into the construction industry, by exposing them to what an amazing career in construction can look like from a young age,” said Meloni Raney, President and CEO of TEXO, the association that supports the non-residential construction industry in Texas.
“And then the piece that I’m most excited about is after they go through the workshop, they can interact with the smart board, and on that smart board, they can find out what a career in construction can pay or a career in the skilled trades can pay, and then it connects them with training programs in the area and also employers that are hiring them,” Rainey said. “So right out of high school, 18, and you graduate high school, you can go to work for one of these employers and they’ll pay for your training. They support the training. And then you get on the job skills.”
In its first six months, TEXO will get the Be Pro Be Proud mobile workshop to high schools in Dallas-Fort Worth and engage more than 1,500 students. Other schools can get information and request a visit.
