How to Start a Welding Career: Trade School vs Apprenticeship Paths + Career Growth Insights w/ Bill Myers
Skilled trades careers are booming, from trade school welding programs to women in skilled trades. William Myers of Ancora Education shares why now's the time.
Host Andrew Brown sits down with welding educator and skilled trades advocate Bill Myers of Ancora Education to explore how to launch a welding career in today’s trades industry.
They dive into the structure of trade school welding programs, how the NCCER Career Builder helps students choose a path, and what it really takes to land high-paying welding career opportunities—whether you’re just starting out or returning to the trades later in life.
Whether you're considering trade school, apprenticeship, or just want honest insight into skilled trades careers, this episode delivers straight talk from an industry veteran who’s been there.
IN THIS EPISODE
(00:02) – The Rise of Skilled Trades Careers in 2025
(06:41) – How Trade School Welding Programs Are Structured
(15:24) – Breaking Down the NCCER Career Builder Tool
(24:10) – The Role of Women in Skilled Trades Today
(36:52) – Welding Career Opportunities After Graduation
(48:33) – Why Soft Skills Matter as Much as Craftsmanship
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Skilled trades careers are not just viable—they're thriving. Students can now enter trades like carpentry, plumbing, HVAC, and electricians roles with real support and structure.
- Trade school welding programs offer an accelerated path (as short as 10 months) into high-paying welding career opportunities in industries like construction and aerospace.
- Tools like the NCCER Career Builder are game changers in helping prospective students match with the right path in the skilled trades industry—and it's available in high school.
- Women in skilled trades are gaining visibility and mentorship, especially through platforms like TikTok and YouTube, helping shift outdated narratives in the trades industry.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Bill Myers (also known as William Myers) is the National Director of Skilled Trades at Ancora Education. With decades of experience as a welder, fabricator, and educator, Bill has shaped modern training standards across trade programs. He's also an active voice on the Skilled Trades Advisory Council, focusing on education, craftsmanship, and career advocacy for tradespeople.
KEYWORDS
Skilled trades careers, Trade school welding programs, Women in skilled trades, Welding career opportunities, NCCER Career Builder, Skilled Trades, Trades Industry, Trades Careers, Education, Apprenticeships, Career Growth, Industry Experts, Craftsmanship, Problem-solving, Creativity, Andrew Brown, Bill Myers, William Myers, Ancora Education, Skilled Trades Advisory Council, Toolfetch, Welding, Carpentry, HVAC, Electricians, Plumbers, Millwrights, Construction, Contractors, Tradespeople, Advocacy
RESOURCE LINKS
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-myers-907503281/
Ancora Education: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ancora-education/
Transcript
They excelled by doing more. And what I mean by that is we had
Speaker:morning, afternoon and evening classes. So they would take their
Speaker:class in the morning but stay for the afternoon and
Speaker:sometimes the evening class so that they could practice more
Speaker:and more and more and more. And this was back in,
Speaker:I want to say 2012, those guys got hired
Speaker:to work out at Palo Verde nuclear power plant at
Speaker:$2024 an hour right from graduation.
Speaker:It is possible.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Andrew Brown. You're listening to the Lost Star of the Skilled Trades
Speaker:podcast, a show that shines the spotlight on
Speaker:careers in the skilled trades that are high paying, honorable,
Speaker:rewarding and fulfilling. The trades are the backbone of the
Speaker:economy that keep us running and without them, our world
Speaker:would cease to exist.
Speaker:Today we have a special guest, Bill Myers of
Speaker:Encore Education. He is the national director of
Speaker:Skill Trades. Welcome, Bill, to the show.
Speaker:Hey, thank you for having me. It is great for you to be on
Speaker:the show. Career exploration into the trades,
Speaker:I feel now this is just my opinion, I feel is difficult. You
Speaker:have so many different paths that you can take. Welding,
Speaker:carpentry, plumbing, electrical, diesel, mechanic, H Vac.
Speaker:It's just almost feel that it's endless. But some kids
Speaker:don't have the resources to learn
Speaker:and to speak to the right people, so they just give up. How does
Speaker:Ancora education help students find their passion in the
Speaker:trades? A couple ways that we do that, Number one is we
Speaker:direct them to a website. Other than automotive and diesel.
Speaker:All of our other trades are secondary accredited
Speaker:through the nccer, the National Construction of Education and
Speaker:Research. And what they've come up with was a
Speaker:online kind of questionnaire for
Speaker:somebody that wanted to get into trades. So you can start doing
Speaker:this in high school, you can go onto that website and
Speaker:answer a couple pages of questions. And what that's going
Speaker:to do is give that prospective student a better
Speaker:understanding of what trade that person may want to go
Speaker:in. It's called Career Builder. You can find it on
Speaker:nccer.org and a few other places. But it's a
Speaker:good way for them to start. I know when I went to trade school it
Speaker:was still a high school setting, you know, which they did
Speaker:away with, which was a huge mistake. But your freshman
Speaker:year you picked a trade, but you had to take
Speaker:two other trades because you didn't know. You know, like
Speaker:all young adults, you don't really know what trade you want to go into.
Speaker:And when I first picked, I picked something totally different
Speaker:than what I ended up doing. So I started out doing drafting
Speaker:and by the Time my freshman year was over, I picked welding
Speaker:to further, you know, that trade career while I was in high school.
Speaker:You know, you talked about the assessment tool and the career builder.
Speaker:The kids that are coming in, is there anyone who to
Speaker:speak to a little bit further about? So let's say they
Speaker:take the career builder and they find, I don't know, plumbing is
Speaker:sort of their chosen path. If they don't have anybody
Speaker:in their network to speak to, like there's nobody
Speaker:friend related, family related, there's no neighbors, anybody,
Speaker:what can they do to find out more information now that they know that
Speaker:they want to be a plumber? I can't speak for any other
Speaker:schools, but our schools will take you in, give you a
Speaker:tour and tell you about what all is involved in
Speaker:the plumbing program, job opportunities, you know, and
Speaker:everything else. And if you decide, hey, that's not what I want to
Speaker:do. You know, all of our campuses have more than one trade program
Speaker:running at that campus. So, you know, hey, can I talk about
Speaker:electrical or can I go talk about H Vac? And they will
Speaker:show them that particular trade and what that trade
Speaker:encompasses and the job prospects for those trades.
Speaker:So it's not just a, hey, I'm going to show up and only talk about
Speaker:plumbing if that student says, well, I heard a lot about
Speaker:plumbing and I don't think I really want to do that. But I did see
Speaker:that H vac lab over there and that looked interesting. Can I talk about
Speaker:that? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So there's more than one
Speaker:option at every one of our trade schools. And the kids that are coming
Speaker:in, what's sort of the breakdown? What are you seeing?
Speaker:Women wise come in percentage wise versus men that are
Speaker:interested in the trade. So we see
Speaker:about 10% women, usually the biggest
Speaker:majority. It's spread across all the trades. But you see a
Speaker:lot of them in electrical. I see a lot of women in H Vac.
Speaker:I see women in welding, and I see women in diesel, heavy
Speaker:truck, and automotive, you know, so it's not just one
Speaker:trade that they're picking to go to. You see them across the wide
Speaker:variety of trades. And we've even hired instructors that
Speaker:are women that have been in the trade for a while that come in
Speaker:and go, hey, you know what, I want to be an instructor now.
Speaker:You know, they do very well. So, you know, there's always been a push for
Speaker:women in the workforce, and now I think they're actually starting to
Speaker:get into the trades a lot more. I do see that, that
Speaker:women are getting into the trades More. And I believe it's only about 3 or
Speaker:4%. And, you know, people say different percentages, but I believe it's a low.
Speaker:It's a low percentage. I do see the difference
Speaker:being women seeing other women on social media. And what I mean
Speaker:by that is that you have women in welding,
Speaker:electrical, carpentry, all different trades, plumbing.
Speaker:They're showing what it's like a day in the life using your
Speaker:hands. And I've spoken to many different women in different trades, but when you
Speaker:see them out there on social media, whether on TikTok or
Speaker:YouTube or LinkedIn, depending on which channel that you're on, I do
Speaker:feel that it has an influence over somebody who's thinking
Speaker:about working with their hand is a woman doesn't really know much
Speaker:about it, but they see this individual doing this type of work. Do you think
Speaker:that social media has helped women be a little
Speaker:bit more comfortable to see other women doing it out there? Oh, it
Speaker:absolutely hasn't hurt, you know, I mean, because I've seen the
Speaker:TikTok videos of the women that are, you know, in the trades
Speaker:talking about the trades, you know, bricklayers to diesel
Speaker:techs to welders. And, you know, I know for a fact that
Speaker:that's probably help some. But the other thing that helps is coming
Speaker:from a family of people in the trade. When I was
Speaker:growing up, if you were a daughter of my father, he didn't have any
Speaker:daughters, but if you were a daughter of my dad, he would have definitely
Speaker:steered you clear so far away from a trade that it wasn't even
Speaker:funny. But now that dynamic has shifted and,
Speaker:you know, parents are now more open to, to their kids going
Speaker:out and doing something. Not just because, you
Speaker:know, it's, you know, you got to get a college degree and I want you
Speaker:to do this and I want you to do that. But they want their kids
Speaker:to go out and do something that makes good money but also makes them happy.
Speaker:And I think that shift is what helped a lot. If you can
Speaker:kind of go back into the way you mentioned that you were doing
Speaker:welding, was there truly anybody in your circle
Speaker:in the trades at that point, or did you just say, I want to work
Speaker:with my hands? And this welding thing seems like it's for me.
Speaker:How did that journey happen for you? Well, my dad
Speaker:was a tool and die maker. So you're already in
Speaker:with a family and you're in a
Speaker:neighborhood with all people that are in trades,
Speaker:because trades didn't pay what they do now. By no
Speaker:means. So you were in that middle class neighborhood with
Speaker:all the little houses next to each other. And there were more than one
Speaker:person in that neighborhood in the trades because that's just how
Speaker:it was back then. And he was a tool and die maker
Speaker:and he wanted his kids to go to college. That just wasn't for
Speaker:me. By the time I got to high school, I had enough of school.
Speaker:So I went to a high school that was in my school
Speaker:district that was nothing but trades. And
Speaker:to tell you how bad it was having, you know, women
Speaker:segregated from guys, there was a school on one side of the
Speaker:street that was for the women and a school on the other side of the
Speaker:street that was for men. And that's where they taught trades and
Speaker:on the other side they taught cosmetology, cooking,
Speaker:baking, you know, stuff that was traditionally,
Speaker:back then, a woman's role, you know, and it was like, why
Speaker:aren't any of these women over here learning how to weld, Learning how to do
Speaker:this? Learning, learning. Oh, we don't have that. We have this school over here. And
Speaker:it was a little, you know, off putting at first, but I knew
Speaker:I wasn't going to go to college. That wasn't my
Speaker:path. So that was what the regular
Speaker:high schools in my area taught was, here's what
Speaker:you need to do to get to college. Well, I had no intention of
Speaker:doing that. So when I signed up for that school, they gave you a little
Speaker:aptitude test. They made sure that you were going to fit in
Speaker:with, you know, taking a trades course. And then when I
Speaker:picked drafting, they said, okay, but on your freshman year you're going to take
Speaker:drafting for a third, you're going to take machine shop for a
Speaker:third, and then you're going to take welding for a third. And at the end
Speaker:of your freshman season, you pick which one of those you're going
Speaker:to go into for the rest of the time you're in high school because you
Speaker:went to high school for the academia part one week.
Speaker:The other week you spent that whole week in high school in that trade.
Speaker:Things were a lot different back then. I also do feel that shop class
Speaker:was more readily available, that kids went through a shop class. I don't even
Speaker:remember really shop class being in my high
Speaker:school. So I graduated in, I have to think for a
Speaker:quick second. I graduated in 96 out of high
Speaker:school. I don't recall any, you know, trades or
Speaker:shop class of any sort. And I, I get this more and more as I,
Speaker:I speak to more and more people around the country. Some schools have It a
Speaker:lot of schools don't, but these kids are not exposed to working
Speaker:with their hands. So even if somebody has that technical spar, the mechanical
Speaker:ability, sometimes they even get bypassed because when they go to sit
Speaker:down with a guidance counselor, they might not be supported in that
Speaker:they want to go a blue collar, you know, path.
Speaker:Because the only thing that a guidance counselor maybe sees is just what college
Speaker:are you going to? I don't know if that's changing a little bit because of
Speaker:social media, because of a lot of articles in the Wall Street Journal that
Speaker:we've seen about blue collar and the opportunities that it's
Speaker:starting to change. Kids are starting to look at college or four year
Speaker:college degree that you're going to spend six figures. What's the
Speaker:real return on that? I remember going to school, to be honest with you.
Speaker:I say this all the time. I went to University of Rhode island for four
Speaker:years, studied business, programming, finance,
Speaker:came out more confused out of school than I was in school and lost.
Speaker:A lot of people have that journey. If you can go back in time.
Speaker:And a lot of people say this, that I went into something I just wasn't
Speaker:interested in. But if you can go back before school and make that decision to
Speaker:say, you know what, maybe it pays to learn a trade, work
Speaker:with your hands. Because I could take that in many different paths.
Speaker:And I think that's a great option for someone today is just not feeling that
Speaker:college is right for you. Like you said, college wasn't right for you, right?
Speaker:It wasn't. And I knew that, you know, going into, you
Speaker:know, that trade program. But what really messed everything up
Speaker:was everybody that wanted their kids to
Speaker:do better than them. They couldn't see that sometime
Speaker:in the future those trades that those students would
Speaker:learn would end up being a lucrative living for them.
Speaker:You know, they thought, well, if you're going to be a plumber or you're going
Speaker:to be this or you're going to be that, that was beaten down like you
Speaker:weren't a productive member of society. Almost.
Speaker:I'll date myself. But I graduated high school in 1977.
Speaker:When I finished my junior year, the whole curriculum for
Speaker:welding I had learned. After I graduated my junior
Speaker:year, my senior year, they had a job program
Speaker:where, hey, I no longer had to go to that welding
Speaker:class anymore. I went out and worked. So I was
Speaker:working in the field of welding at 17, before I graduated
Speaker:high school. And if you look at things now, it's hard for
Speaker:students that don't have a high school or diploma to
Speaker:Even go to a school and learn a trade. We've put so many
Speaker:restrictions on things with all the bureaucracy that
Speaker:those students don't even get a chance to go to school. They can't
Speaker:get any title for funding. You know, they can't do anything
Speaker:to better themselves. They're stuck, you know, and that's what
Speaker:we need to fix. And I think if we fixed it back at the high
Speaker:school area, it would be a lot better than waiting
Speaker:until after they graduated or dropped out to try to get
Speaker:these students in a program. Because what we've did at our
Speaker:schools is we have a high school where they can
Speaker:finish high school so that they can go to a trade program. They
Speaker:don't have to go to one of ours. It's just an opportunity
Speaker:for those people because high school graduation rates have
Speaker:been dropping, and it's a way for them to be able to graduate
Speaker:high school with an accredited high school, not a
Speaker:ged. They get an actual high school diploma and be able to
Speaker:go out and do whatever it is they wanted to do.
Speaker:That that high school diploma barrier was stopping them from to do,
Speaker:you know, and there's all kinds of reasons people can't, you know,
Speaker:finish high school. Whether it's personal, whether it's, you know,
Speaker:language or education, or sometimes it's a financial barrier for
Speaker:their family that that person has to go out to work. But
Speaker:I started welding before I finished high school. I don't know why anybody else
Speaker:couldn't. But the nice thing about the NCCER is they partnered up
Speaker:with and have a build your future initiative where
Speaker:these people are going to high schools and talking to seniors
Speaker:about the benefits of trade programs before they graduate
Speaker:now. So I think that helps a lot too. You
Speaker:mentioned a couple times, the nccer. I had Boyd Worsham on the
Speaker:podcast, the president of the organization, and
Speaker:he just did a. An outstanding job, you know, really explaining what
Speaker:the organization is doing and, you know, how they go about
Speaker:it. So you're just kind of reinforcing. Exactly kind of what they do,
Speaker:you know, Some of these statistics out there, I follow
Speaker:on the welding side. Welding workforce data.com that's put out by
Speaker:the American Welding Society. And the latest Data says
Speaker:by 2029, we need
Speaker:320,500 welders by
Speaker:2029, which is about 80,000
Speaker:welders every single year to make up that gap, on top
Speaker:of 157,000
Speaker:welders retiring. Also, they state that the median wage
Speaker:is about $26.76 now. That's they
Speaker:say that's the median wage or 55,000. Talk to
Speaker:me a little bit about, let's say, if you go to Encore education
Speaker:and you go through the welding program, for people that are listening,
Speaker:how long is the program people going to ask, when can
Speaker:I start making money? When does that happen and what can I expect?
Speaker:Every program is about 10 months long. Depends on the,
Speaker:you know, when you fall in into the category of
Speaker:are you going to have, you know, that week off during July
Speaker:and that two weeks off at Christmas. It's roughly 10 months
Speaker:again. And I don't know if Boyd touched on, you know, their actual
Speaker:curriculum or not, but every curriculum that we use
Speaker:from them is four levels of
Speaker:welding, electrical, plumbing or whatever it is. It is a registered
Speaker:apprenticeship program. We are not an apprenticeship school
Speaker:because that day go to school for a couple hours and then go to work
Speaker:the rest of the time. But we do have labs that replicate
Speaker:what those students will be welding on out in the field.
Speaker:We start trying to look for jobs for these students about 30
Speaker:days before graduation. You don't want to get too carried away because,
Speaker:you know, then you start having the life and job mix and they end up
Speaker:not graduating from the program, but at about the
Speaker:30 days, you know, their last few weeks
Speaker:of the class, they're out there looking for jobs, they're
Speaker:out there applying for jobs, they're taking weld tests. If it's only
Speaker:10 months that you're a part of this program, that's not a big
Speaker:investment of time. If you think about it over a course of like dedicating
Speaker:four years to college. Right. And spending all that money. So after
Speaker:the 10 month mark, you said that you can get a
Speaker:job with local welding shops or local
Speaker:companies. Is that directly through Encore that
Speaker:they set that up because of the relationships. We have
Speaker:a career services division that helps students with
Speaker:going out on an interview, writing a resume if they need
Speaker:one, doing all of the steps that needs to be taken, you know,
Speaker:for that student to just interview and then, hey,
Speaker:here's a list of jobs. Here's some places we're going to send you to go,
Speaker:you know, and again, it depends on where
Speaker:the location is as to where the pay is. And we don't
Speaker:ever talk about pay, but they do make good money.
Speaker:They just don't make that $26 an hour yet. Now,
Speaker:we have a lot of schools in Texas and those people, you know, that's the
Speaker:heart of the oil field, they're going to do better, but it doesn't mean that
Speaker:A student that's taking a class in Arizona can't move to
Speaker:Texas. It doesn't mean anybody can't move anywhere.
Speaker:Every program that's taught is taught the same at every school. In
Speaker:your opinion. I mean, everybody's situation is different. I'm just
Speaker:thinking what people say online because I'm very active on social media and
Speaker:TikTok and I, you know, I always look at the comments and people who say,
Speaker:like, and I'm just using welding as an example. You can't make money
Speaker:in welding. And then someone comes out and says, no, no, no, I'm making,
Speaker:you know, 100 plus in welding
Speaker:after x amount of years. But then it comes down to
Speaker:location. And then there's a lot of people who say, like, I can't get up
Speaker:and move. And this is my situation. I can't make enough money.
Speaker:Well, what do I do here? And, you know, would
Speaker:you recommend somebody say, you're going to have to unfortunately
Speaker:go where the work is and where the money is, or you just,
Speaker:you know, you stay put where you are, and then you're going to have to
Speaker:kind of figure something out, you know, to get to the level you want to
Speaker:get to. Like, what would you say to someone like that? Because there's a lot
Speaker:of that out there, a lot of pushback. If somebody's saying they're
Speaker:not making enough money in welding, they haven't put the time and
Speaker:effort in to be a good welder. I caught welding for five years
Speaker:before I started doing this. So welding's my trade. And
Speaker:I told them, I said I was making
Speaker:$80,000 a year in the 80s and I
Speaker:didn't move. I lived in Ohio. There was no pipeline
Speaker:running through. There were no, you know, refineries or anything like that.
Speaker:But you have to go find that work. I said, there are people
Speaker:that run from shutdown to shutdown and make a good
Speaker:living for six to eight months, and then they take three or four months
Speaker:off because they made their year's worth of money in that
Speaker:amount of time. But you have to be up here.
Speaker:You can't be the welder down here. So improve your
Speaker:skills. We tell our graduates, once you graduate,
Speaker:that doesn't mean you can stop coming here. You can come here
Speaker:and practice. You can come here and ask for a different lead. If
Speaker:that lead and that job isn't panning out, ask career
Speaker:services to send you somewhere else. Go out there and learn a different
Speaker:technique, figure out what it is and what they want,
Speaker:and then skill yourself to that job. But if
Speaker:you just sit there and do the same thing over and over and over again,
Speaker:then you won't improve. You have to diversify and
Speaker:make sure that you're finding out what that area has
Speaker:as far as job offerings and make sure you practice those kind
Speaker:of job offerings. I said there's aerospace jobs all over the
Speaker:place. Come back and practice that welt. Come back and
Speaker:practice that. Whatever the material is. There's all
Speaker:kind of things you can do to upskill yourself because once you
Speaker:graduate, you can keep coming back here. I just had someone on
Speaker:the podcast who's in welding and he's the aerospace sector
Speaker:and they just put a satellite on the moon and he was one of
Speaker:the people who did the welding of the spacecraft. I mean,
Speaker:he's in a unique situation and he's doing extremely well. So
Speaker:sometimes, yeah, you have to go to where the work is. I've even
Speaker:spoken to welders. Sometimes they have a couple of different jobs, you know, in order
Speaker:to get to a certain point, money wise,
Speaker:that you have to level up your skills, you know, get another
Speaker:certification, maybe go where the work is, maybe the place that you're at,
Speaker:maybe you've hit a ceiling and you need to move on from there. It really
Speaker:kind of depends, but it's up to you to do that. And sometimes you just
Speaker:gotta be, I would say, a little bit assertive. And you gotta go,
Speaker:you know, to the places where the work is. And sometimes you
Speaker:got to get in front of people. You have to show them that you show
Speaker:up on time. These are the soft skills. Forget about the technical skills, just
Speaker:showing up on time, not being on your phone, just the basic things that
Speaker:maybe you and I know. But to the younger generation, sometimes
Speaker:that's not sort of baked in of what they know. Those are the things that
Speaker:employers really look for. You know, we get feedback from our employers
Speaker:all the time, and one of the things that they talk about the most
Speaker:is making sure these people show up on time. And I
Speaker:go, you can't teach that. You know, I can stand up here and say,
Speaker:hey, this employer is going to want you to show up on time every day.
Speaker:If he asks you to work overtime, he's going to want you to work overtime.
Speaker:But you can't teach that. That person has to either want to do
Speaker:that or he's not going to want to do that. And that's where I think
Speaker:you're hearing some of those online stories about,
Speaker:oh, I do, I work in welding, but I don't make any good money. Well,
Speaker:that person. You know, as soon as I hear that, it's like
Speaker:if you're not making good money in the welding field or any other trade
Speaker:field, you're not a good employee. There are good and bad
Speaker:employees. I keep telling them, I said, you will, but you
Speaker:have to change your habits, too. It's not just them.
Speaker:It's not just them. And you have to, you know,
Speaker:learn and evolve and get better. It's really up to you. And
Speaker:it's what you put in is literally what you're going to get
Speaker:out. How have you seen the technology evolve
Speaker:over time because of the shortage? And, you know, you look at
Speaker:cobot welding and you look at different things that they're trying to do to kind
Speaker:of combat the shortage in the welding side is that opened up
Speaker:more opportunity for people, kids who are interested in
Speaker:the gamification side, that, you know, they can run these
Speaker:cobot machines and use sort of like iPads and that type of stuff,
Speaker:you know, versus just the standard, you know, welding jobs
Speaker:that are out there. Yeah, I know what you mean. But the problem with that
Speaker:is there's only certain amount of things that that can be done on. You
Speaker:know, there's the repetitive piece that's going to get welded
Speaker:over and over and over again the same way, and somebody's going to make a
Speaker:thousand of them. If that robot took my job that I was
Speaker:doing, that did that, I would be thanking the robot because nobody
Speaker:wants to sit there for eight hours and weld the same piece over and over
Speaker:and over again, day in and day out. I said, that's not
Speaker:how I learned to weld. That's not how. The first company
Speaker:that I worked for for 20 years, that's not what we did there. We
Speaker:built things from scratch. So you weren't a welder, you
Speaker:were a welder fabricator. You had to know how to run a
Speaker:shear, how to run a brake press, and I didn't know how to
Speaker:do any of that when I got there. But if you pay attention and you
Speaker:work with those people, you'll learn to do all that stuff, which
Speaker:will then make you more valuable to that company. When
Speaker:kids are going through the actual programs itself, you're
Speaker:obviously going through with other people who are going through the program, but do they
Speaker:have any mentorship or people that have sort of been in the
Speaker:industry for quite a while? I mean, obviously you have the teachers itself, but
Speaker:is there anybody that you put people in touch with to
Speaker:speak to about what the future could be within
Speaker:welding or any type of trade that they're going through.
Speaker:All right, so that's a good question. So we have a pack meeting
Speaker:which is the people that are
Speaker:prospective hires of our students, people in the industry
Speaker:that come and look at, you know, the curriculum and the labs and,
Speaker:you know, hey, make recommendations. Do we need this, do we need
Speaker:that? What do you think? You know, and those people that
Speaker:come in that are people that are going to employ our students,
Speaker:we get them to come in as guest speakers to talk to our students
Speaker:and go, hey, I want you to come in and talk to our students for
Speaker:an hour on, you know, Thursday night at 6 or 7 o'
Speaker:clock. Because I'm not going to try to ask them to come during their work
Speaker:day. A lot of them will come in and I go, all I want you
Speaker:to do is talk to them about what the expectation
Speaker:is when they come to work for you or come to work for
Speaker:you, or come to work for you. Because they need to hear it from
Speaker:the people that are actually going to employ them. I can sit up
Speaker:there and preach all day, but if they start hearing it from the people that
Speaker:are going to employ them, maybe that will make a difference in how
Speaker:they look at things. You're seeing it sort of firsthand and what you're
Speaker:going to be, what do employers have to do today because
Speaker:it is competitive to find a good welder has
Speaker:options, is it based upon
Speaker:pay? And that's it. And that's how to get the person to come to your
Speaker:company. What are you seeing? Why certain people will go to
Speaker:one company over another handing these trades.
Speaker:It's not like before where, you know, people would jump ship for 25
Speaker:cents an hour. I mean, I remember that happening in the 80s a lot,
Speaker:but now it's more about, that's this generational group
Speaker:is what are my days off? You know, when do I
Speaker:get my days off, when do I get vacation? What are the
Speaker:benefits? I'm going to start a family. So things like that are important.
Speaker:But the also the other important part of that is
Speaker:how long have you been in business? Are you going to be in business
Speaker:for the next 10 years or 15 years? What are you going
Speaker:to upskill me with when I come to work for you? I might not know
Speaker:how to do something. Are you going to train me to do that? So those
Speaker:are things a lot of our students are looking for from employers.
Speaker:On the other side of that, employers are always looking for students
Speaker:that know how to do exactly what they do. And I'm
Speaker:like, we teach a well rounded welding program you know, from
Speaker:gmaw, gtaw, smaw,
Speaker:fcaw. But your welding and
Speaker:your process might be something they're not accustomed to. Are you
Speaker:willing to, you know, take the time to train them to do
Speaker:stuff like that? You know, the employer side always wants somebody that
Speaker:I want him to be able to come in and start that job right away.
Speaker:We're teaching them how to weld on 7 inch long plates. Is
Speaker:that all you do is make one 7 inch long weld with one restart? And
Speaker:it's like, well, no, we don't do that. We. I go, well, then you're going
Speaker:to have to show them how to do that. We can't replicate
Speaker:every single well that's out there. Well, to your point. And
Speaker:again, I'm just using social media. A lot of kids
Speaker:say, yeah, I have this skill, but there's nobody hiring
Speaker:somebody with no experience. So if you don't have any experience, how do you get
Speaker:the job? What do you do in that case? And again,
Speaker:that's back to the employer. The employers are complaining that,
Speaker:well, we don't have enough people, we don't have enough people. And then
Speaker:we're sending them people with, you know, hey, they've never had a job
Speaker:in welding. They've had 10 months of welding school. They haven't
Speaker:had a job in welding. Oh, I don't want that person. I want the person
Speaker:that can come in and start doing the job right away and it's like,
Speaker:well, good luck finding them. So it's on both sides there. At
Speaker:some point that has to come together and those
Speaker:employers got to realize that, okay, wait a minute,
Speaker:we're going to have to start hiring these people. And some
Speaker:employers have already embraced that. The ones that don't are
Speaker:the ones that are going to fall behind and eventually go out of business because
Speaker:they can't find anybody. Unfortunately, that's what's going to happen.
Speaker:It's just interesting to hear both sides, but there's a reason why both sides are
Speaker:feeling this way. Do you have any success stories
Speaker:that kind of pop up in your mind of any of the trades or anybody
Speaker:has come through the program who has really excelled up
Speaker:over the handful of years that you could share with us?
Speaker:Of course, now I'm not at the campus anymore, but I know when
Speaker:I was working at the campus there were four or five students
Speaker:that they excelled by doing more. And what I mean by
Speaker:that is we had morning, afternoon and evening classes.
Speaker:So they would take their class in the morning, but stay for
Speaker:the afternoon and sometimes the evening class. So that they
Speaker:could practice more and more and more and more. And
Speaker:this was back in, I want to say, 2012,
Speaker:those guys got hired to work out at Palo Verde
Speaker:nuclear power plant at 20, $24 an hour right from
Speaker:graduation. It is possible, but you have to be
Speaker:able to make that commitment. I get it. A lot of students can't
Speaker:make that commitment because of family already having
Speaker:work obligations. And that's why they come to night school. They're
Speaker:trying to work during the day, come to school at night to better themselves.
Speaker:So I get everybody can't do that. But the more that you can
Speaker:come and practice, the better you'll be and the more that person
Speaker:will likely hire you and pay you more. And I'm sure you
Speaker:can always tell the ones that are a step above the others in the
Speaker:work they do. And if you couple that with the soft skills and you'd
Speaker:get hopefully a good job, you know, a full career, hopefully from that
Speaker:organization that can, you know, take you
Speaker:long term, career wise. Well, even some of those guys
Speaker:weren't the best welders that I've ever seen at that school. When you
Speaker:go back to that soft skills part where they showed up every
Speaker:day, they were on time every day, they had that great attitude
Speaker:that every employer is looking for. That's what separated them
Speaker:from the guys that were a little bit better welders but didn't have that
Speaker:attitude, I'll say. It again, is what you put in is what you're going to
Speaker:get out. And the opportunities, I think over the next handful of years,
Speaker:40% retiring and all these different trades that you really
Speaker:have an opportunity to learn a trade that's an always in
Speaker:demand. And there's tons of companies out there that are looking for
Speaker:great individuals that have a good skill set. Again, coupling it with
Speaker:the soft skills, I think you can do extremely, extremely well in the
Speaker:trades industry.
Speaker:Now, the tools of the trade. Bill, this
Speaker:was an amazing conversation, but in every episode, we
Speaker:always ask our guests a tools of the trade.
Speaker:What's one piece of career advice you can
Speaker:give someone, let's say entering the trades that you
Speaker:wish you knew when you started out? Okay, when I first
Speaker:started, I did not know to see what
Speaker:everyone else was doing and how it was being done. If you
Speaker:want to, you know, really elevate what you're doing,
Speaker:watch the other people that have been doing it longer than you, it
Speaker:will shoot up and you'll get these light bulbs they
Speaker:say going off in your head going, oh, my goodness, I never
Speaker:knew this could be done like this or like that or you know,
Speaker:I didn't know I could learn how to do this and get more money.
Speaker:So watch what everyone else that has been working there for a
Speaker:while is doing and how they're doing it. And it will elevate your
Speaker:skills by a lot. You can reinvent the wheel, but there are people
Speaker:who've already gone down that path who are successful, get around those people, get around
Speaker:good people that have a good mindset, that have good skills, that have
Speaker:good soft skills and that's who you want to be around because
Speaker:they want to succeed. It's going to rub off on you. So I think that's
Speaker:sort of great of rights across the board. If people want to find
Speaker:out more about Ancora education, a little bit more about
Speaker:anything social related on your end, where would they go to find that?
Speaker:Ancora.com you know, they can find so much about
Speaker:our schools, so much about where the locations are.
Speaker:You can even find them on our schools are listed on the
Speaker:NCCR website. I suggest they go look at the
Speaker:NCCR website and see what they're all about so that they
Speaker:know what they're getting into. Because just because we have
Speaker:hybrid programs in the trades, that's just meaning you're doing
Speaker:your reading and your book work. So to say
Speaker:on your time at home. The trade off is you don't have to come to
Speaker:school to do that book work. When you come to school you're going
Speaker:into the lab environment, you're going to learn what you read about.
Speaker:So if I read about oxy fuel cutting, when I come to school the
Speaker:next day I'm going to go do oxy fuel cutting.
Speaker:So you know, learn about what trade and definitely go to
Speaker:that career builder and fill out it and see what it's all about
Speaker:and just talk to a lot of people that are in that particular
Speaker:trade. It'll give you a lot of insight on what trade you may
Speaker:want to go in in the future. Like you said, the boomers are
Speaker:retiring at an alarming rate and that was the largest
Speaker:generation of people. You know, the next group of people
Speaker:was the Gen Xers. Well, the Gen Xers are already out there working.
Speaker:You know, if they're not in a trade, they're not going to be, you know,
Speaker:getting replaced anytime soon. But you gen zers get out there
Speaker:and you know there's a lot of opportunities because those
Speaker:boomers that traditionally did all those trade jobs
Speaker:are actually retiring a lot every year. Bill,
Speaker:this has been great advice across the board thank you for being on the
Speaker:show today. Hey, thank you for inviting me. It was good. I liked it.
Speaker:And thank you to our listeners. If you want more valuable insights and trades
Speaker:related information, head over to andrewbrown.net and join our
Speaker:Trades Movement newsletter where we advocate for the trades, share
Speaker:inspirational stories, provide resources, and you join a
Speaker:passionate trades community. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast
Speaker:so you never miss another episode. We'll see you next time.
Speaker:Thanks for listening to the Lost Art of the Skilled Trades. Visit
Speaker:us@AndrewBrown.net for more resources and tips.
Speaker:Join us next time for real stories and meaningful initiatives
Speaker:as we celebrate our men and women in the skilled trades and shape
Speaker:the future together.
