The Professional Pathways Archive is a video repository of the amazing careers in Northern NM. Designed for a teenage audience, these videos feature local graduates now working in the skilled trades, in fighting wildland fires — and soon in many other domains as well. Our newest videos (to the right) we shot up at Taos Ski Valley; and over the summer we captured Careers in Wildland Fire Management, shot during the Hermit’s Peak – Calf Canyon fire.

With funding from the Northwest Regional Education Cooperative #2, TK1 has also created six videos featuring skilled tradespeople throughout Northern NM. Each video explores a different trade by interviewing a local tradesperson and then showing images of that individual at a job site. The intent is to inspire a student audience, informing them of the choices a local individual made upon graduating high school to the current stage of their career, including income level, responsibilities, and aspirations.

Under TK1’s supervision and direction, students from Questa, Peñasco, Mesa Vista, Jemez Mountains, and Pojoaque will lead these video shoots. TK1 professional staff will then edit the footage into final products according to a tight production timeline. Final versions of the videos will be shown on September 15, 2022 at the National Skilled Trades Day Fair in Peñasco.

The ultimate outcome of this work is to show students very real, very rewarding, and very achievable career paths that can keep them in this state as highly productive members of society. This will also help fill a growing void in the local workforce, and ideally will be the first videos of an extensive archive of local careers and work.