CHICAGO — There's no shortage of work for Mike Kirby, a 21-year-old apprentice electrician in Iowa who's lately been on the job 10 hours a day, seven days a week.

He and others in the traditional trades are in great demand nationwide, with many trades groups and employers hotly recruiting high school students to try and fill the growing need for everything from plumbers to bricklayers and drywallers.

Yet despite the opportunities, the jobs are proving a tough sell — not only to young people but also to parents and school counselors, who don't always see the trades as a desirable option.

"That's the way it's preached: 'If you don't go to college, you can't do anything.' But obviously that's not true," says Kirby, who will finish his apprenticeship next year with Shaw Electric in Davenport, Iowa.

He expects to make $18 an hour once he finishes and hopes that will increase to as much as $25 an hour in the years to come.

Officials at organizations representing the construction trades note that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the industry will need to add 100,000 jobs each year through 2012, while also filling an additional 90,000 openings annually for positions vacated by retiring baby boomers and those leaving the industry for other reasons.

Some believe the labor shortage will only become more severe as the need for skilled workers increases on the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast and in regions with housing booms.

"Do we have an immediate crisis? Probably not. Will we in five years? Absolutely," says Gary Dowty, executive vice president of the Lake County Contractors Association, based in north suburban Chicago.

Already, he's seen several baby boomer trades workers take early retirement — "good retirement and pensions," he notes. "They can afford to retire at 55 or 60 and they're doing it."

Each spring, Dowty's organization sponsors a career expo for local eighth-graders, who get to build toolboxes, lay brick and use a jackhammer — and each year, the two-day event has become more popular.

The idea is to plant seeds early — with some trades organizations hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the children's TV program "Bob the Builder" and home-improvement shows, including "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls."

Some trades organizations, such as the Associated Builders and Contractors, have partnerships with the Boy Scouts of America and Junior Achievement. They offer training programs in Spanish. And still others, including Chicago Women in Trades, send speakers to schools to get more girls interested in a traditionally male-dominated field.

Trades organizations also hope to supplant the notion that a college degree is the only path to a good career, creating an atmosphere more like that in Europe, where trades such as plumber, electrician and carpenter are often regarded as attractive professions.

"We say, 'apprenticeship is the other four-year degree,' " says Bob Piper, vice president of workforce development for the Arlington, Va.-based Associated Builders and Contractors.

And increasingly, some jobs such as construction management do require a college degree — and offer competitive starting salaries for graduates.

"And yet nobody's saying, 'Hey, this is a good career,' " says Michael Holland, executive vice president of the American Council for Construction Education, based in San Antonio, Texas.

The northern chapter of the California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors recruited 65 high school graduates for its first internship program during the summer. Of those, 35 completed the program — and 12 are staying to work in the trades.

"We're not going to change this overnight. But if these kids get an honest look and hear it from each other, they can see there's an opportunity," says Brian Peters, a board member for the California group, which noticed a big change in the group of young interns who showed up for orientation "slouching in the chairs, hats on backward."

By the end-of-summer banquet, he says, "it was shiny shoes, sitting up straight, bright-eyed, realizing they'd accomplished something."

Amy Stafford, an 18-year-old college freshman, was one of the 35 who finished an internship. She worked at a plumbing company in Rocklin, Calif.

For now, she plans to continue her studies at Fresno State University. But she's grown to see the trades in a new light.

During her internship, she says, "I didn't worry about getting greasy cutting gas pipe, and I didn't worry about having to wear work boots and carrying heavy things. I loved my job. I loved the people."