Tides Restaurant saw a full house Thursday as 58 career and technical students from four high schools celebrated their achievements ahead of upcoming graduations.

The Warwick Area, Woonsocket, Chariho and Ponaganset Career and Technical Center’s carpentry programs each attended, as well as WACTC’s electrical technology program.

“This is my fourth year coming here, and every year it’s bigger, and I love that,” Mayor Frank Picozzi said.

Fifty-eight students made for the largest number recognized, according to Wayne Pimental of the Rhode Island Building Officials Association (RIBOA) and a Narragansett building and zoning official.

Pimental said the event also provides an opportunity for those entering the trades to meet and network with local business leaders, many of whom spoke about different aspects of their careers and the twists and turns that they have taken.

The speakers agreed students would find their work in the trades to be fulfilling throughout their lives.

“It’s rewarding in the fact that you get to look back on all the things over the years when you’re my age and say, ‘I helped build that, I did this’ as you’re driving around the state,” RIBOA president Brad Ward said. “It’s exciting because there’s an extreme demand for your services now within the construction industry, and you’re going forward into a very lucrative and very desirable profession.”

Even if they leave the industry, though, speakers emphasized that the tools they have learned in their respective career and technical centers would stick with them for life.

“You never lose that ability,” James Deslandis, the president of the Rhode Island Builders Association, said. “You always hold onto the trades, hold onto the skills.”

One student from each program was given an additional honor by their instructors- Outstanding Student Awards, given to those who stood out from their peers. Warwick student Nicholas Reynolds was chosen from the carpentry program and Cameron Coppolino from the electrical technology program.

With so many of the trades in high demand, Pimental said, the students were entering the field at a great time.

“We feel that vocational students have been underestimated as far as what they can do,” Pimental said. “And finally, now, I think they’re being recognized, and hopefully they stay in the trades.”

Following the ceremony, those attending were served lunch that had been prepared by Warwick Area Career and Technical Center culinary students. Tides Restaurant is part of the WACTC.

The students were each given “tool boxes” valued at more than $500, with carpentry students receiving DeWalt and Makita tools donated by DeWalt, Netcoh Tool Sales and the Rhode Island Building Officials Association. Electrical students also received Kline Electrical Apprentice tool kits, as well as the Makita equipment received by carpentry students, donated by D&D Electric, Netcoh Tool Sales and the RIBOA.