Hello everyone, I have read the various responses in this thread and I have also re-read my statements here. Everyone will always have an opinion on any given topic and generally there are plenty of reasons and logic behind the opinions that support a particular individuals train of thought. Welders, fitters, engineers, estimators, QC personnel, and anyone else that has anything to do with our trades will come to their positions in any number of ways. Some will work their way up through the school of hard knocks, maybe they will have very little "formal" education, maybe everything that they have learned will come from observation, interaction, questioning, personal research, practicing on their own, or any number of other ways that don't follow educational or apprenticeship type learning(formal apprenticeship that is), that certainly doesn't mean that they are not capable of doing a very proficient, skilled, or competent job. Similarly, a great number of others will take a different road and possibly go through all of the available schooling and apply themselves above and beyond the general path that many might take, they are likely to have all of the drive and passion that is required to achieve greatly once they have transitioned into real-world jobs, they might also opt to go into formal apprenticeships to further their knowledge and skills in a particular field. Yet others, will utilize a combination of these learning opportunities, they might very well have employed a mixture of schooling and real-world training to get them to where they are. Regardless of the particular path that is chosen, it is up to the individual in any case, as to how much energy, drive, passion, etc. that they are willing to put forth. Ultimately, this is the bottom line and will truly determine your degree of personal success.
     Not intending to take ANYTHING away from the truly amazing individuals who are a part of the Skills USA competitions, I do believe there are individuals who are potentially equally talented and gifted, yet, due to not having the resources or opportunities available, they may not receive the same type of recognition or be recognized in the same manner. Most of these individuals however, will certainly do well once they go out to work simply because of their abilities, skill sets, drive, and ambition. I was a VICA welding competitor many years ago and did reasonably well in competition, placed in the upper portion at the nationals. I saw many others while involved in those competitions and certainly appreciated their skills and attitudes, I have no doubt that pretty much all of them have gone on to have successful careers. Once I went on to have my career I worked with any number of talented individuals, I can guarantee that learning took place at many levels and occasions and the ones teaching me had learned their particular skills in any number of ways, both formal and informal. There was a "paper" that was posted on the forum a few years back describing schooling and discussing the expectations, challenges, and a host of other things that folks could expect once they had completed "school", the main message of all of this was to let everyone know just how small "schooling" really was when compared to going out and living life, having a family, maintaining a career, earning a living and CONTINUING to LEARN(it never really stops, or at least it shouldn't). This paper also emphasized listing some important points to live by while accomplishing all of this: Listen....Learn....Share. In the Listening portion there was a statement that one of your talents while engaged in any trade would be to determine the truth from the hype, essentially this plays out along these lines: you will hear any number of statements by any number of people which will tell how and why to do any number of things, you will hopefully acquire the SKILL to determine the "truth from the hype" and LEARN.
     I believe Metarinka said: that so long as you are happy with the learning that has taken place at your particular place of learning that's all you really need to concern yourself with, or something along those lines. I would additionally include that "knowlege is power", don't know who coined that, but, it is a fundamental statement and many things revolve around it, striving for it will bring you much success, in possibly both good and bad ways, depending on how you put it to use. Knowlege is not exclusive to schools, it is all around us and can be received in any number of ways, being able to recognize knowledge and put it to good use is perhaps one of the best skill sets that anyone can hope to master. I'll just finish out by saying that learning can take place on any number of levels and be valued in any number of ways, we can learn from the most knowledgeable individuals on the planet and we can also learn from infants. Well, I'm off to learn something new, please don't crucify me too badly for the dissertation here. Best regards, Allan

I have to aggree, if you are happy where you are, and you are being challenged on a daily basis then you probably are in a good program. I do think that If a championship welder can put in welds that are so good that they have people lined up to hire them, then they must be pretty good welders. im sure there are also people out there who are equilly good, but have never competed though. Nice videos BTW, i take the tour of that shop every day ;)

This is very true. I've had the pleasure of working under 4 nationals winning skills USA welders, and their weld quality is unreal.

I don't think their needs to be a pissing match about which weld school is better. but I was glad I went to WCC as they had some skilled instructors and good facilities and they got the best out of us students. We didn't have so many champions by coincidence, they just didn't allow us to get away with anything less.