It is no secret that Australia is facing skill and workforce shortages across its industries, with Wagga no exception to the problem.

On Thursday, businesses set up booths at the Try a Trades Day held by the NSW Department of Education.

The trades day event gave high school students and members of the public the chance to get a look at what local businesses have to offer potential employees.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Department of Education project officer Stacey Suidgeest said they had 38 booths at the event and had 14 Riverina schools come through on the day, which resulted in over 400 visiting students.

Booths ranged from hairdressers and fitness centres to Truck Art and Wagga Motors.

The Riverina Anglican College year 10 student Montana McLennan said the event gave them the opportunity to see what different careers looked like behind the scenes.

With a keen interest in maybe joining the army one day, Miss McLennan had a firm eye on the Australian Defence Force booth.

For O'Reilly Trucks manager Tracey O'Reilly, the event was a good opportunity to showcase the different avenues different trades can offer employees that may not always be common knowledge.

"We need people of all different areas, diesel mechanics, parts interpreters, warehouse distribution and then the business side," she said.

"We want people to realise there are lots of different avenues within our business than just the mechanic side."

Mrs O'Reilly said they were also able to have an engine on site which allowed them to be able to show prospective employees that mechanics can be a clean career.

"We [were able to] demonstrate the diagnostics side of the truck and show how technology is used now," she said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: