I've become involved with a committee of my region's high school, Vo-Tech and Community College education professionals.
The basis behind the formation of this committee is the fact that historically, students have been taught that in order to be successful, they have to go to college and become degreed in their chosen field. This fallacy has been and is a large part of the reason why we in the US are suffering from a lack of skilled tradesmen.
In effort to alleviate this problem, our committee is focusing on the development of enhanced educational programs geared toward skilled trades and a means of making students aware of their options. One particular means we're working on is the creation of a poster sized graphic that shows a car driving down a road with many turn offs, called "The road to success in ______ (trade name)". Each turn off, or branch in the road is labeled with the various available options unique to the trade or career path that the poster focuses on, including potential monetary compensation. (i.e. nursing, machining, mechanical, electrical, welding, etc) I've been tasked with supplying information needed, concerning welding, to create this road map.
The attached excel spreadsheet is my preliminary attempt to supply the requested information.
I've tried to keep it simple, yet accurate at the same time, which is, difficult.
I would appreciate your opinions on how to improve this basic listing, and/or ideas toward meeting the end goal.
Thanks in advance for your time and consideration,
Tim Gary
Hello Tim, thanks for including that on the forum here. It is certainly an issue that all of us should be concerned with. You are so right about the "pounding" that all of our kids get in school about the "correct" way to become educated and prepared for life. A 4-year or higher sort of track seems to be prevalent. We have a similar sort of issue in our state with regard to what describes a "completer" from our school. The state has a definition tied to credit hours or a degree or some other sort of certificate accomplishment. We feel that whenever we have given or brought a student to the point where they can realize their own potential and go out and become a successful and contributing member of society able to support themselves and their families, as a success. I could go on an on, but for now I'll just say that I appreciate you taking the time to share. I will be following where this goes here. Thanks and best regards, Allan
Sorry Tim, my computer wasn't able to download the file.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
Hello Giovanni,
Thanks for trying to help out.
I copied the information from a Microsoft "EXCEL" spreadsheet to a "WORD" document.
Perhaps that will make it available to you.
Tim
Hi Tim,
First off, I think what you are doing is a very worthwhile cause.
Reviewing your spreadsheet, my first impression was that it contains too much information. Your target audience are new to the welding world. I would keep it simple. Metallurgist/Contractor/Business Owner don't fall under "skilled tradesmen".
Here's what I'm thinking:
My 2 cents
Tyrone
Thanks Tyrone, I appreciate your input.
I should tone it down some, but I do want to add enough information to peak interest and to encourage the kids to ask questions about the parts they don't understand.
I'll need to put some more thought into it.
Tim
I know too well were you are coming from. Check out weld-ed.org for the State of the Welding Industry Report: Executive Summary
Some information there. That might lead you to careersinwelding.com
May not be what you are looking for...but good reading.
This is my first post so I haven't figured out how to link the web sites.......maybe it will do it when I hit the post button?
Joe
Welcome to the forum.
Thanks for your input.
It's funny you should mention Weld-Ed.
I recommended their 2 year "Welding Technician" program to our local Community College last meeting.
I was able to attend their National Welding Educators conference at Fab Tech last year and was impressed with their direction.
Let's hope their funding from the NSF will continue past the 2014 forecast.
You can copy and paste web site links directly to your posts.
Also, you can attach pics and docs to your posts, after you make the post, through the "edit" option that will come up when you read your own post.
Tim
Thanks Tim,
We have a AAS Degree program here and my number one suggestion is looking at the structure closely. In our 2 year degree, the course work for the AAS Degree is embedded. I know of other schools that the student takes all the Welding curriculum and then has to take the classes for the AAS Degree. And in todays job market, they will probably not pursue the degree. We do lose a certain number after 1 year to industry but still maintain a full time 2nd year section.
Joe
What I would like to see is not an "either or" college / trade mindset, but rather 4 year degrees in the skilled trades. A career field like welding could easily fill up a four year curriculum of hands on / applied training, without even touching welding engineering topics. Our two-year program has 118 quarter credits just in core welding courses and it still is barely an adequate amount of time for "combination welder" training in my opinion.
Your right of course.
But so many student learners are ready to go out and make money after gaining certifiable skills in maybe one local process. Nothing wrong with that either :)
Employers need to get involved and send entry level workers *back* to school to get the skills requred to transition new workers into the roles being left by baby boomers who are finally leaving the work force.
I like a version of the "career pathways" model that starts at about 7th grade and continues in some form or another for life..... Silly dreamer :)
Old style apprenticeships would be nice to see again too..... Non union outfits need to take the good parts of this type of carreer path and run with it.
100 to 300k for a welding engineer is a tad inflated. When I graduated with a BS in WE from Ohio State in '07, the average starting salary for our class was 53k. The highest paying job I knew of looking for fresh grads was for a company in the Oil Patch that was paying 74k to do on site (oil rig) engineering support for their orbital narrow gap MIG welding. I am going to assume that in the past 5 years, the average starting salary is a bit larger, maybe up to 60k, but I doubt any higher. The typical upper pay I hear about is in the 120k to 140k range for guys with 20+ years experience. That said, the ceiling is much higher than that, and maybe 300k is toward the ceiling, but there's what common and what's possible.
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