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June 29, 2026
NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – With 259,000 job openings in the construction industry in April – up 25,000 from March and 52,000 year over year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey – demand for skilled trades workers remains strong.
As the industry works to build its future workforce, 17 young adults are beginning apprenticeship careers with Neenah-based Miron Construction Co., Inc., joining the next generation of skilled trades workers.
The group was officially recognized during a career signing day earlier this month as they began their construction careers.
Dawn Grenzer-Stumpf – Miron’s educational engagement manager – said the group represents multiple stages of early construction training, including youth apprentices bridging into registered (union) apprenticeships, youth apprentices entering their second year of training and new youth apprentices beginning their programs.
Grenzer-Stumpf said the company’s career signing day is a time for high school and college graduates to officially begin employment with a construction contractor who will sponsor them throughout their registered apprenticeship and provide on-the-job training.
She said in addition to on-the-job training, registered apprentices also receive classroom instruction through their designated union training centers as part of their apprenticeship.
“Miron has utilized several youth apprentices over the last six or seven years [when] I was brought into the role to help facilitate and put the time into coordinating and developing a strong program,” she said. “During the last three years, we have increased our participation about 150%.”
A record-breaking year
Grenzer-Stumpf said the impact of the apprenticeship program reaches beyond Northeast Wisconsin to projects across the state.
“That’s in all the satellite locations we have across the state, or really, anywhere we have a project going on that can bring on a youth apprentice,” she said. “If we’re going to be in a community for the duration of a school year, for example, my role is to tap into that district to allow students in that community to have an opportunity to begin a career path within the construction industry.”
Nine youth apprentices were highlighted during the signing day, including two high school graduates entering registered apprenticeships, three advancing into their second year of youth apprenticeship and four beginning their 2026-27 programs.
Grenzer-Stumpf said eight of the new registered apprentices signed with the Northern Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters, while one signed with the Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers District Council of Wisconsin.
The four new youth apprentices, she said, will begin in late summer and work through the 2026-27 school year.
“All of our youth apprentices are learning from seasoned tradespeople and veterans of the industry,” she said. “They are shaping the landscape for our communities, one career at a time. Our commitment to training the youth is so very important to us.”
Grenzer-Stumpf said Miron also onboarded four youth apprentices in Beloit, four in the Wausau area and three in the Eau Claire region.
“For Miron, this has been a record year,” she said. “We closed out the 2025-26 school year with 26 youth apprentices across the state. We’re kicking off the 2026-27 school year with 17 youth apprentices statewide, and I’m certain that as we kick off more projects, that number will only increase.”
All in the family
David Voss III – Miron’s VP and chief construction operating officer – said he compares the company’s signing day to that of the Big Ten – the NCAA conference of the Wisconsin Badgers.
“It’s the same type of excitement when an athlete signs on with a school,” he said. “With our apprentices, there are no student loans, you earn as you learn and you have a skill nobody can take away from you for the rest of your life.”
Voss said he is who he is today because of the field mentors he has worked with over the years.
“They were second to none,” he said. “I was told to be like a sponge: take in everything you can and learn. They’ve been through a lot of things that were done the right way and plenty of things that were done the wrong way.”
About 60% of Miron’s current field workers, Voss said, came through the company’s apprenticeship program.
“Many are second and third generation – we look at them like they are family,” he said. “These young people are coming into the industry with very innovative minds. The knowledge our youth is coming out of school with is a breath of fresh air.”
A need for skilled workers
David Polk – the director of the Wisconsin Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards within the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development – said youth and union apprentices not only gain meaningful work experience that sets them up for success in the future, but they also add to the talent pipeline of skilled, diverse employees who innovate the workforce.
“Events and programs like this are so very important to take part in because a great company like Miron is giving these young adults a start in the trades at a very young age,” he said. “Data shows that when young people start a career at this age, they become the future leaders of that occupation.”
Polk said those honored at the celebration will be future apprentice mentors, contractors and superintendents who will help train the next generation.
“Wisconsin has the oldest registered apprenticeship programming in the country,” he said. “We also have the oldest and most expansive youth apprenticeship programming in the country. There are more than 12,000 youth apprentices in Wisconsin, which is the most of any state in the country. Your path might be advancing today, but it doesn’t end with the tools you will receive today.”
Polk said attending events like Miron’s across the state allows him to see young people celebrate the start of their careers.
“This is my second time attending Miron’s signing day, and it never gets old,” he said. “Youth apprentice signings like this are becoming more prevalent across the state. I’m really excited about that, because this is an industry that wasn’t really celebrated too much in the past.”
According to a workforce forecast from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, by 2031, only about 42% of jobs are expected to require a four-year degree or higher by 2031.
The study also found that while 58% of future jobs will not require a bachelor’s degree, many workers will still need technical training, apprenticeships or two-year degrees, particularly in fields such as health care, advanced manufacturing, information technology, construction and the skilled trades.
“I think there has been a little bit of a renaissance in pushing young people into construction and trades careers,” Polk said. “I started my own apprenticeship back in the late 1990s, and there was some practice of getting young people involved, but over the past 10 years, I think that faded some.”
Though technology and the use of AI are making “all the headlines,” Polk said the trades still need skilled workers to use their hands to complete tasks.
“Technology and AI can certainly help, but the careers these young people are embarking on can’t be completed by simply using AI,” he said. “Parents are also seeing that and helping their children see that, too.”
Speaking of parents and other family members, Polk said they are integral to a youth apprentice’s success.
“It wasn’t a hurdle for me because I came from a family of tradespeople,” he said. “I also understand not everyone comes from the same background as I did, and oftentimes, embarking on a career in the construction trades can be a deep conversation for family. It takes a village to support their journeys.”
Hearing from an apprentice
One of the 17 youth on hand – and the only female of the group – Alana Oertel, a recent New London High School graduate who bridged into a registered masonry apprenticeship.
Taking on a full course load during her junior year, Oertel said, set her up for success her senior year through the Miron apprenticeship program.
“It was a lot, but I pretty much took all of the rest of my graduation requirements my junior year,” she said. “By the time my junior year ended, I was mainly done with everything. In high school, I did a lot of carpentry, but I realized that wasn’t my thing. From there, I attended some field trips and got introduced to masonry, and found I really liked it.”
Masonry involves building structures from units such as brick, stone or concrete blocks that are bound with mortar or, in some cases, stacked without mortar.
Not coming from a family history of trades workers, Oertel said she hopes to continue with Miron and learn more about the industry going forward.
Miron Masonry Superintendent Ryan Hobbs, who has been with the company since 1999, said Oertel was relentless in her pursuit of joining Miron’s apprentice program.
“She was persistent all right,” he laughed. “She showed up, did a job shadow and called multiple times before she got the chance. I fought for her and made everyone at Miron know she was serious about it.”
Oertel, in particular, Hobbs said, is motivated and smart and goes above and beyond what is expected.
“I’ve done a lot of youth programs at high schools, but it’s not the same compared to having someone work with you on-site daily,” he said. “Alana has done a great job, and I think she has a bright future in the industry.”
