LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Just a junior at Fairdale High School, Sammy Zurschmeide is already prepping for a career working on diesel vehicles. 

“Working with my dad one day on his truck, I thought it was really fun,” he said. “And then the next year was my freshman year, and I found out that they had a diesel technician class.”

The high school hosted a recruiting event where students like Zurschmeide got the chance to show off what they’ve been learning.

Representatives for several companies came to scout potential job candidates, and even interview some of them.

“They know us now because we come in here, it previews our stuff that we offer to them so they know what they’re looking for, and let’s us see the skills of kids we probably wouldn’t see without a school like this,” said Larry Meenach, Kentucky senior district fleet manager for Waste Management, said with the number of openings they have, these kids will have plenty of opportunities.

“It’s been very difficult the last couple years. We’ve run five to six technicians short, we need drivers really bad, we’ve been short on drivers,” he said. “It’s starting to come back around a little bit, but these classes help us find kids that, like I said, we wouldn’t normally see because it’s really hard at the moment.”

The program at Fairdale has been in the works since 2019 and teacher Stephen Crepps says they’re hoping to bridge the gap between students and employers.

“We never get a shortage of emails or contact from employers that say we’re hiring; do you have interested students?” he said. “And we always have students that are wanting to work.”

The school also hosted a job fair for students earlier in the school year.