North Lenoir High students get a feel for the work of a crane operator, using a simulator on the Be Pro Be Proud bus.

The Be Pro Be Proud bus couldn’t have picked a better time to roll into Lenoir County. 

February is Career and Technical Education Month, when LCPS celebrates those programs that connect students to more than a dozen potential careers. And, with a growing worker shortage in trade occupations, it’s an opportune time for high school students to zero in on companies that are hiring.

The Be Pro Be Proud bus – actually a semi-trailer filled with engaging simulators, both arcade-like and VR-enhanced – helps on both counts. Parked at Kinston High School on Monday and Tuesday, it hosted more than 200 middle school and high school students already involved with CTE and, through the simulators, gave them a feel for what a commercial truck driver or a heavy equipment operator or a utility lineman does for a leaving.

And for those high school seniors ready to take that step, the Be Pro Be Proud website can connect them to potential employers.

“We travel around to the schools and teach (students) about technical careers. It gives them an opportunity not only through our website to find that career, but it will get them to training, help them find jobs and resources, whether apprenticeships or grants,” said Josh Seaford, who supervised the bus that came to Kinston – one of two in the state.  “It can actually connect them with the sponsors and employers already looking for them.”

Featured careers included welder, lineworker, heavy equipment operator, commercial truck driver, plumber, HVAC technician, machinist and construction worker, among others.

“This is the kind of hands-on, interactive learning our students really enjoy,” Brittany Harrison, LCPS’s career development coordinator, said as students from North Lenoir High School tried their hand at the simulators.

Be Pro Be Proud is an initiative led by the N.C. Home Builders Educational and Charitable Foundation.