Developing The Next Generation

This summer, Toro Hayes, Superintendent, and Kevin Kinney, Corporate Superintendent, oversaw the Grow Detroit’s Young Talent program. The 6-week program aims to provide students with the knowledge to begin a career in the trades. Ideal Contracting brought in eighteen Cody High School students.

The students visited five job sites which included the General Motors Global Tech Center, General Motors Pontiac Global Propulsion Systems, General Motors Milford Proving Grounds, Toyota Ann Arbor and the City of Marysville Foundation project. At our GM sites, students shadowed our trades to experience what their jobs consisted of on a day-to-day basis. At the City of Marysville Foundation project, students gained hands-on experience while pouring concrete and tying steel.

Toro and Kevin have both been leaders at Ideal in helping to develop our youth through various mentorship opportunities, such as O-Tech, OU Signing Day and Build U, Ideal Contracting’s college internship program. They recognize that an internship experience can shape one’s career for years to come and has great value in a young person’s life. “I could tell from day one that the students wanted to be here. They were excited and enthusiastic from the start,” said Toro.

Upon completion of the program, Ideal Contracting hired two of the students. We are excited to welcome Robert Warwick, now an apprentice with the Laborers Local 1076 and Brenda Davis an apprentice with the Operators Local 1324, to the Ideal team.