Many recent high school graduates are enjoying a summer outside the classroom before college begins.

Others are already in the workforce, thanks to career and technical training while in high school.

A signing ceremony marked the start of working careers for these graduates of the Crawford County Technical Center. Employers lined up to offer jobs.

It follows years in a classroom that for some looks like this — It’s the precision machining program.

Fallyn Lantz of Cochranton is following a family tradition.

“My dad always worked at a machine shop his whole life and my brother got into it, so I’m following in their paths, and here we are. (And do you like it?) I do, yeah,” said Lantz.

Lantz is interning at a Meadville company for 12 weeks this summer. Meanwhile, Hunter Craig signed on with Pennco tool, and he is already at work.

He suggests students consider tech center opportunities.

“It’s good learning skills, you can figure out if you really want to do it when you graduate high school. Figure out if you enjoy running the machines, making different kinds of parts that are useful,” said Craig.

One thing certain about the students in the precision machining program at the Crawford County Vo-Tech is they will have zero issues finding a job when they graduate.

“There are hundreds if not thousands of openings right now for machinists. They desperately want someone who can come in and is trainable. That’s one of the things we’re able to do here, is train them on the basics and they can take that into a company and they can just excel from there,” said Jim Hillwig, machining instructor.

One thing all employers are looking for is a willingness to work and to show up every day.