SAN DIEGO — High School students in San Diego County are learning that driving a big rig could lead to big money.
In Tuesday's Zevely Zone, Jeff was invited to Lakeside to see students from El Capitan High and the IDEA Center learn how to drive skip loaders.
The students were also treated to a ride along in gigantic rock quarry trucks. Project Cornerstone is a non-profit organization that teams up with leaders in the construction materials industry to recruit and train the next generation of drivers and workers.
"The average starting salary for these jobs is $ 70,000 a year," said Crystal Howard from Project Cornerstone.
No college degree is required, just hard working and dedicated employees who love the great outdoors. Project Cornerstone offers hands-on field trips to local quarries and in-class activities for San Diego County students that are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and support STEM education.
Zevely asked Ian Firth from Lehigh Hanson if he will start yelling at the students in training.
Firth chuckled and said: "We really don't do that anymore. Yelling."
Apparently, construction is more about brains than brawn these days.
Ron Lyons from Hawthorne Machinery the local Caterpillar dealer let me drive one of the rigs.
"Tilt it back or you're going to dump that load on your head," Lyons warned Zevely.
"Ahhhh!!!," said Zevely as he ate a bunch of dirt for lunch. It's definitely harder than it looks, but if you are young and eager, you'll never go dirt poor driving a rig or being a mechanic.
For more information on the program Project Cornerstone.