{"id":63420,"date":"2026-03-06T14:56:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T19:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63420"},"modified":"2026-03-06T14:56:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T19:56:33","slug":"the-gmf-steel-career-fair-held-on-february-27-2026-at-the-sun-n-fun-expo-campus-in-lakeland-florida-successfully-drew-over-800-students-from-18-high-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/06\/the-gmf-steel-career-fair-held-on-february-27-2026-at-the-sun-n-fun-expo-campus-in-lakeland-florida-successfully-drew-over-800-students-from-18-high-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"The GMF Steel Career Fair, held on February 27, 2026, at the Sun &#8216;n Fun Expo Campus in Lakeland, Florida, successfully drew over 800 students from 18 high schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The GMF Steel Career Fair, held on February 27, 2026, at the Sun &#8216;n Fun Expo Campus in Lakeland, Florida, successfully drew over 800 students from 18 high schools across Polk and Hillsborough counties.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"4b422d\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #4b422d;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/images-1-2.webp?resize=275%2C183&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63421 not-transparent\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This annual event is a major push by GMF Steel Group to address the growing demand for skilled labor in Florida&#8217;s construction industry, which currently employs roughly 8.5% of the local workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Event Highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Hands-on Exposure:<\/strong> Students participated in live demonstrations, including <strong>welding techniques<\/strong>, <strong>operating cranes<\/strong>, and <strong>rebar tying<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Broad Career Spectrum:<\/strong> Beyond the trades, the fair showcased &#8220;white-collar&#8221; roles within construction, such as <strong>finance<\/strong>, <strong>insurance<\/strong>, and <strong>project management<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Industry Collaboration:<\/strong> The event was supported by the <strong>Steel Erectors Association of America (SEAA)<\/strong> and featured several other contractors, including Bowman Steel and Gardner-Watson Decking.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Investment in Youth:<\/strong> GMF Steel invested approximately <strong>$18,000<\/strong> specifically to bus students to the venue, ensuring accessibility for the next generation of workers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Why It Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Florida\u2019s population continuing to rise, the demand for infrastructure\u2014and the workers to build it\u2014is at an all-time high. Recent data shows that median wages for specialized skilled trades now range from <strong>$65,000 to $85,000<\/strong>, often outpacing the starting salaries of many four-year college graduates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Opportunities at GMF Steel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For those who missed the fair, GMF Steel offers several entry points for students and recent graduates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><td><strong>Program<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Details<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Apprenticeship<\/strong><\/td><td>A free, NCCER-accredited <strong>Structural Steel Ironworker<\/strong> program where participants are paid employees with full benefits.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Summer Internships<\/strong><\/td><td>A 12-week program for 2026 focusing on hands-on steel industry experience.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>New Graduate Roles<\/strong><\/td><td>Full-time positions in departments like <strong>Estimating<\/strong>, <strong>Fabrication<\/strong>, and <strong>Field Operations<\/strong> for Spring 2026 grads.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The more you get exposed to different industries, the more you start finding an attraction to a certain area.&#8221; \u2014 <strong>Andy Norman<\/strong>, President of GMF Steel Group<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GMF Steel Career Fair, held on February 27, 2026, at the Sun &#8216;n Fun Expo Campus in Lakeland, Florida, successfully drew over 800 students from 18 high schools across&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2ltYWdlcy0xLTIud2VicD9maXQ9Mjc1JTJDMTgzJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiVGhlIEdNRiBTdGVlbCBDYXJlZXIgRmFpciwgaGVsZCBvbiBGZWJydWFyeSAyNywgMjAyNiwgYXQgdGhlIFN1biAmIzgyMTY7biBGdW4gRXhwbyBDYW1wdXMgaW4gTGFrZWxhbmQsIEZsb3JpZGEsIHN1Y2Nlc3NmdWxseSBkcmV3IG92ZXIgODAwIHN0dWRlbnRzIGZyb20gMTggaGlnaCBzY2hvb2xzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.LfkGeTOK8ROloxyOOohTIFvpezB7SlO84P9HN6YmmzQMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13094,13950,2332,13948,13951,13949],"class_list":["post-63420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-13094","tag-at-the-sun-n-fun-expo-campus-in-lakeland","tag-florida","tag-held-on-february-27","tag-successfully-drew-over-800-students-from-18-high-schools","tag-the-gmf-steel-career-fair"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63422,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63420\/revisions\/63422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}