About
Heavy Metal Summer Experience gives students hands-on learning through projects while working alongside craft professionals. The program focuses on exposure to sheet metal, piping, and plumbing trades, and students tour active job sites and union training facilities. With a focus on safety, students see different parts of construction, from BIM through fabrication and installation, and each camp offers high-engagement, hands-on learning experiences where students become part of a team that builds community and explore an alternative to a traditional 4-year degree with no student debt, high pay, job security, and continued skill development.
In 2021, Western Allied Mechanical, Hermanson Company, SMACNA-Western Washington and SMACNA National teamed up to combat the construction industry’s labor shortage by introducing high school students and recent graduates to careers in the building trades. The Heavy Metal Summer Experience states that it exists to inspire students with real-world training showcasing dynamic career opportunities in the skilled trades, and to ensure the continued vitality of the union construction industry. Partners across the country now include Western Allied Mechanical, Hermanson Company, SMACNA-Western Washington and SMACNA National, and the program has expanded its reach into high schools, technical programs, community colleges, youth organizations and non-profits, with a focus on recruiting minorities, females and at-risk students. The program is taught by working craft professionals.
Last updated January 26, 2026.
In 2021, Western Allied Mechanical, Hermanson Company, SMACNA-Western Washington and SMACNA National teamed up to combat the construction industry’s labor shortage by introducing high school students and recent graduates to careers in the building trades. The Heavy Metal Summer Experience states that it exists to inspire students with real-world training showcasing dynamic career opportunities in the skilled trades, and to ensure the continued vitality of the union construction industry. Partners across the country now include Western Allied Mechanical, Hermanson Company, SMACNA-Western Washington and SMACNA National, and the program has expanded its reach into high schools, technical programs, community colleges, youth organizations and non-profits, with a focus on recruiting minorities, females and at-risk students. The program is taught by working craft professionals.
Last updated January 26, 2026.
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