Introducing careers in rental at a younger age

Jun. 19, 2022

The American Rental Association (ARA) is working to promote equipment and event rental as an exciting and lucrative career. To do this, the association wants to reach students and parents at an earlier age.

One way ARA can do this is by partnering with organizations and programs that are focused on youth development. To help create partnerships, ARA is asking members to fill out a Youth Development Survey. In the survey, participants will answer questions about the youth programs they took part in as a child — such as Girl and Boy Scouts, 4-H, Junior Achievement and more. They also will be asked about their familiarity with various programs and their opinion on ARA partnering or supporting youth-based development organizations.

A survey email was previously sent out to primary contacts for ARA general members. Those who haven’t taken the survey will have another opportunity to do so this week. The survey will be emailed on Tuesday, June 21. The email subject line will be “ARA - Take Youth Development Survey.”

ARA is asking all members to take a few minutes to complete the survey.

James Auerbach, ARA vice president, event segment and rental industry workforce development, stresses the importance of gathering this information and using it to create partnerships with the goal of getting information about the rental industry to students sooner.

“The goal is to introduce careers in rental at a younger age so it’s something students consider when they’re making life choices. My son is 15 years old and a freshman in high school, he’s currently in the process of attending numerous ‘What do you want to do with your life’ classes and seminars. He’s being given all kinds of information on different careers — like being a teacher, doctor, lawyer, etc. The one thing that they never bring up is careers in rental. It’s not even part of the discussion and that’s a problem,” Auerbach says.

“ARA wants rental to be in the discussion earlier so we’re looking for opportunities to do that. This includes the introduction of student memberships this year, partnering with schools and youth development organizations — like the Girl Scouts. In addition, ARA is creating career recruitment materials that rental store owners can use when recruiting at high schools and colleges in their region,” he says.

Visit ARArental.org/Student-Membership to learn more about the free ARA Student Membership. For full details on ARA’s industry workforce initiatives, click here.

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