Vocational Program Gives Booker High Student Career Path Into Waste Management

The next time your trash gets picked up, you may want to thank a high schooler.

Booker High School 11th grader Carlos Salcido gets up before the sun rises, and joins the City of Sarasota Public Works crew at 6:45 a.m. five days a week as a garbage man in training. 

“My friends say ‘that stinks’.  But, I like it,” said Salcido with a smile and a shrug.  “That’s what I want to do.  I want to be a garbage man.” 

The 17-year-old is earning school credits as part of the Vocational Instruction Program with Sarasota County Schools preparing him and many other students in various fields with on-the-job training. This is the third year the city has participated in the program.

“It’s making a difference,” said Omar Vega, who supervises the program for the City of Sarasota.  “Students gain skills they need for a job in the workforce.  Being on time to work, dependability and handling hard physical work are some of the things they learn working with us.  That’s really valuable for a student who wants to go straight into the workforce.”  

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Salcido had to go through a formal job interview, get his paperwork in order and balance school with his three-hour morning shift picking up residential trash with some of those cans weighing 60 pounds, which is about as heavy as some of those book bags at school. 

Salcido then shuttles off to school to take marine science, English and math classes.

“Before I started working here I was getting into trouble,” said Salcido.  “I was fighting and I got suspended.  Then, I had two friends who were in the program somewhere else and I thought it sounded good.  I like it.  I’m working now.”  

Salcido remembered seeing the garbage men come by his house as a little boy and he was always interested in what they were doing and realized when he was older he'd like to have a career in waste management.

The Public Works staff has helped him create a career plan and once he turns 18 in the spring, Salcido plans to earn his commercial driver license then land a full-time waste management job.

“The solid waste guys here really like being part of this program,”  Vega said.  “We know we’re helping kids like Carlos get the experience and the confidence they need to get a full time job.  It’s a good partnership.  It’s working.”