In what was once a car dealership less than half a mile from Evanston Township High School, a new kind of spark is catching fire — not from engines, but through the work at The Trade Collective.
“We light fires. … That’s what happens when a student starts thinking about things that really grab their interest,” said Susan Besson, a Trade Collective team member focused on communications and advancement. “They get jazzed because there’s some machine that they’re really interested in — boom, there’s a spark.”
The Trade Collective, a nonprofit founded in Evanston in 2024, helps young people explore career paths in the skilled trades. The organization is funded by the support of local donors and made entirely of volunteers, with the exception of one hire.
In partnership with ETHS, The Trade Collective collaborates with high school students as early as freshman year. The organization aims to connect students to hands-on experiences with industry professionals, giving them a clear understanding of what a trade career looks like, including any necessary certifications or training to get there.
Besson emphasized that the team likes to “make a distinction between jobs and careers,” noting that while they hope every high school graduate finds a job, they focus on helping students explore long-term career paths.
“The real experience is really what matters,” Trade Collective Director and co-founder Neil Gambow said. “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it. So we really want the kids to see it, touch it, feel it.”
The facility operates as a kind of “laboratory” for career exploration, where students can connect with tradespeople and get early exposure to specific industries, or “Collectives,” as the organization refers to them. These Collectives are industry-specific groups representing fields like Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, plumbing, manufacturing and more.
These Collectives allow local employers, distributors and manufacturers to interact directly with students and expose them to career opportunities. Some of the organization’s current partners include BrightView Landscape and Wausau Tile.
Several ETHS students, their parents and other youth interacted with some of these organizations Monday at The Trade Collective’s first student-facing event, a skilled trades expo.
Activities ranged from operating machinery inside trailers to learning about solar energy and drone systems.
Zoe Lance, an assistant project manager of 93Energy — a solar engineering, procurement and construction company — coordinates materials, quotes and communication between teams such as engineering and manufacturing to help design and build solar power systems.
Lance said many students were particularly interested in the drones displayed on her table, which are used to record videos and survey land. She added the importance of giving students this glimpse into the field.
“We’re just trying to expose the students to the industry and show them what’s possible for them to get into career-wise,” Lance said.
At another station just outside The Trade Collective building, students stepped into a different type of classroom — one on wheels.
Operated by Leon Opyd, lead instructor of machinist training at Prairie State College, the manufacturing trailer serves as a “mobile classroom” where he teaches a 12-week course covering basic mathematics and program language essential for understanding the computer-aided machines housed inside the trailer.
Opyd noted that applying concepts like algebra in a real-world setting helps students better understand what they are learning. He said while the course is hands-on, it still requires academic learning.
“This is the way formula is, this is where you apply it and now you got to go and use it,” Opyd said. “And that makes a huge, huge difference for a lot of people.”
Opyd also highlighted the importance of looking beyond the immediate course, showing students the possibilities for future education. On the final day of his course, he takes students to a college campus where they can see a machining lab firsthand, demonstrating that this is just the beginning.
Neil emphasized that the goal of The Trade Collective is not to discourage students from pursuing college, but rather to elevate skilled trade careers as equally valuable options.
“The industry has been complaining for years, ‘I can’t find good people,’” Gambow said. “They’re there. They’re over at the high school.”
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