Page 9 - HIWT Fall 2013 World of Welding

hiwt@welding.org HOBART INSTITUTE OF WELDING TECHNOLOGY

BUILT TO LAST

WELDING STUDENTS CREATING FENCE FOR CITY

By Scott Smith
Staff Writer
Kokomo Tribune to go to the

Reprinted with permission W
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Welding is not a job for the faint of heart. But for kids who Troy, Ohio, to
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grinding, it’s a ticket to prosperity.
Damewood
wants to work at
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teacher Brian Mikesell has for his students, who are learning a nuclear power
real world skills by building a custom-designed fence plant in eastern
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a family member
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Schools Superintendent Jeff Hauswald that is both a way for
the city to upgrade a major infrastructure project and lend
work experience to about 20 students.

In the Career Center welding shop during the 90-minute periods fabrication shop.
Mikesell’s students are working, it’s all noise, punctuated “Y
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torches and the perfectly controlled fury of the plasma cutter.

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The students are churning out posts and fencing — not the “There’s no limits %URZQ ZHOGV D VWHHO IHQFLQJ SRVW WR EH
stuff people put around their yards, but the kind of fencing to what you can LQVWDOOHG DURXQG D PHGLDQ RQ $SSHUVRQ
that would stop a car. The city buys the materials and pays the do.” :D\ QHDU GRZQWRZQ .RNRPR
school for the use of its machines, and the kids go to work.

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“The city is able to stay local, and to utilize
students as workers,” Hauswald said. “It’s a
win-win.”

There’s a shortage of welders across the U.S.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates
the number of welding jobs nationwide
should grow by 15 percent by 2020.
That’s after years of decline, as the auto
industry turned to automated welding. Much
of the expected growth will be on projects
to repair the nation’s aging infrastructure
and in the energy sector, experts predict.

Mikesell said students are graduating from local
high schools and quickly moving through nine
months of welding school to good-paying jobs.
Two of his students — Western High School
senior Adam Shepherd and Taylor senior
Cody Damewood — are getting ready

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