GTCC summer camp helps Guilford County kids explore future careers

Robotic kits, health science demos, digital design and entrepreneurship are reaching Guilford County kids before they ever fill out a college application. At Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, summer camp is doing more than entertaining teens for a week, it is giving them an early look at work that can become a career path in a county where employers and schools are closely tied to the labor market.

Why GTCC is treating camp like workforce development

Guilford County has long depended on a mix of health care, manufacturing, aviation, technology and skilled trades, and GTCC is using its summer programming to meet those needs earlier in a student’s life. The idea is simple but strategic: if kids can see a college lab, a trade tool or a health science pathway before high school, they are more likely to picture themselves there later.

That early exposure also matters for families. A summer program built around exploration gives students a structured place to spend time when school is out, while giving parents a clearer view of what kind of training the college offers and how it connects to local jobs. It also helps demystify college itself, especially for children who may not yet see a campus as part of their future.

What students can actually do at camp

GTCC frames its camp with a direct slogan: “Discover Passions, Explore Careers.” The college says its summer camp offerings range from digital arts and robotics to entrepreneurship and health sciences, a spread that points to both creative and technical career tracks. That mix matters because many of the jobs shaping Guilford County’s future do not look like traditional classrooms, they look like labs, studios, clinics and workshops.

One camper, Sophie McCoskey, a rising eighth grader, put the appeal in plain terms. “The best part for me has been just like being able to be creative and just like design whatever I want,” she said. That kind of hands-on freedom is the draw for many students, and it is exactly the kind of early confidence-building that can steer a young person toward a field they had never considered.

Who the camps are for and when they run

GTCC’s camp pages say the program is aimed at teens ages 13 to 18, with two summer weeks for families to choose from. A 2025 registration notice listed sessions from June 16 to June 20 and June 23 to June 27, and said students could apply and register for one or both weeks.

GTCC also listed Titan Summer Camps 2026 as a series running from June 22, 2026, to July 24, 2026, with multiple dates and times at various locations. That wider calendar suggests the college is using summer not as a one-off event, but as a pipeline season, with different entry points for students who want to sample more than one discipline.

How the camp connects to the county’s labor pipeline

The camp is only one piece of GTCC’s workforce strategy. The college’s Summer SkillUp Programs go deeper into the kinds of work that keep local employers running, including plumbing, HVAC, electrical, low-voltage safety, EV charging systems, shower installation, water heater installation and welding fundamentals. Those are not abstract interests, they are the practical skills that feed buildings, fleets, homes and industrial sites across Guilford County.

GTCC’s Fire Academy shows the same job-connected approach. The academy says it prepares people for firefighting careers, and the page notes that 88% of the last four Fire Academy graduating classes have full-time employment. That figure matters because it shows the college measuring success not just by enrollment, but by whether training leads to a paycheck and a career.

Why parents and employers should pay attention

For parents, the value of a camp like this is not limited to keeping teenagers busy. It gives young people a low-risk way to test what they like, whether that is coding, cooking, designing, building or learning how health care works. It also gives families a clearer sense of what GTCC can offer long before a student is ready for a degree or certificate program.

For employers, the significance is even broader. Guilford County’s future workforce depends on whether students can see themselves in local jobs early enough to start building skills, credentials and confidence. A camp that links a rising eighth grader to digital arts or robotics, and then connects older teens to plumbing, welding or fire training, helps create a pipeline that starts before college and reaches all the way to hiring.