Hello Chris, I believe that Lawrence gave you pretty accurate information regarding the union and also non-union scenario regarding where your students can look for work once they have finished with you and sometimes even before they are done with you. If at all possible you need to take time to cultivate relationships with the various union organizations that are in your area as well as the various employers that would be hiring your students. You will want to remain neutral regarding options for either of these choices, stick to facts regarding strong and weak points for justification of a particular union or non-union choice. Your allegiance should be to your students and their preparation for the working world and not to any specific business sector necessarily. There are going to be pros and cons to any particular trade union that a person looks at, I feel the trick is to select the one that best fits the individuals strengths and desires and at the same time is realistic for the current economic condition and work that is available. When Lawrence mentioned the Ironworkers in his area he was most likely referring to the fact that they are the particular union at this time that is busiest and doing the most hiring or has the most work right now. So these choices are definitely tied to regional needs. Having said that, there is a ton of data available from a myriad of sources that can tell you that all of the unions and trade businesses in general will be looking for qualified individuals in the future for many years to come. If you have students that are wanting to travel or who are willing to relocate they will likely have no trouble finding work in any given area or particular trade union.
I noticed that you had a post in the educational section of the forum asking about testing and certification of students. I teach at a community college and also do testing and certification, however I am not a CWI/CWE, I am actually qualified by the state of Washington to certify welders for structural welding in the state under an organization they call WABO (Washington Association of Building Officials), they use AWS D1.1 and associated standards but are not affiliated with AWS. I test both outside welders and my students as well. As far as conflict of interest goes, it certainly could be argued that this is a conflict, I would say, however, that I hold students to an even more stringent set of guidelines than I do outside testers that I deal with. My justification for higher standards for students has to do with the fact that they have familiarity with the machines in the shop and they also have a very clear understanding of the performance that is expected of them. They also have been working for extended lengths of time to achieve success on the tests before they actually formally take the test. We come to a mutual agreement when I feel that they are ready to test and their fail rates are very low. Another thing in regards to this situation has to do with the fact that perspective employers of these students will almost always give a performance test of their own and only accept the qualification that the students hold after verifying results with their own tests. The hardest thing for students to accept after they have completed training at a school of some sort is that they are still entry level individuals and until they have actually had real world experiences in the trade can they consider themselves somewhat qualified to work above that level. Hope this helps some. Best of luck and Regards, aevald
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