Welding careers, welding apprenticeship programs, and the welding skills gap—Arc Junkies host Jason Becker breaks down what today’s welders need to know.

Host Andrew Brown sits down with Jason Becker, Marine veteran, longtime welder, educator, and host of the Arc Junkies podcast, to explore the real-world journey from hands-on welding work to industry-wide storytelling and advocacy.

This episode unpacks how years of hands-on welding experience shaped Jason’s voice as an industry advocate and podcast host—learning welding through repetition, hard work, and decades in the trade and how he went on to hosting his own podcast where he’s spent 450+ episodes amplifying honest conversations about welding careers, workforce development, and the growing welding skills gap.

Together, Andrew and Jason break down what today’s welders need to know about welding apprenticeship programs, trade school for welding, mentorship, pay progression, and why the trades struggle to attract and retain the next generation. The conversation also highlights how platforms like the Arc Junkies podcast help reshape how young people view welding and the broader Skilled Trades.

Whether you’re considering a career in welding, already working under the hood, or interested in how storytelling can influence the Trades Industry, this episode delivers grounded, experience-backed insight.

IN THIS EPISODE

1. (00:01) – From Under the Hood: Jason Becker’s welding origin story
2. (07:45) – Military welding, ironwork, and decades in the field
3. (16:10) – To the Mic: Taking over the Arc Junkies podcast
4. (27:30) – Welding Apprenticeship Programs vs Trade School for Welding
5. (40:50) – The Welding Skills Gap: pay, perception, and mentorship failures
6. (55:40) – Why storytelling matters for the future of welding careers

Key Takeaways

1. Welding careers are built through time under the hood—real skill takes repetition, patience, and mentorship.
2. Welding apprenticeship programs and trade school for welding both play critical roles, depending on career goals and access.
3. The welding skills gap is driven as much by culture, pay stagnation, and weak mentorship as by labor shortages.
4. Moving from the shop floor to platforms like the Arc Junkies podcast shows how tradespeople can lead industry advocacy and education.

About the Guest

Jason Becker is a Marine veteran, professional welder, educator, and host of the Arc Junkies podcast. With decades of experience in welding, construction, and workforce training, Jason has become a trusted voice in conversations around welding careers, skills development, and the future of the Skilled Trades. His work bridges hands-on craftsmanship with industry-wide storytelling and advocacy.

Keywords

Welding Careers, Welding Apprenticeship Programs, Welding Skills Gap, Trade School for Welding, Arc Junkies Podcast, Skilled Trades, Trades Industry, Trades Careers, Tradespeople, Contractors, Industry Experts, Skilled Trades Advisory Council, Construction, Carpentry, HVAC, Electricians, Plumbers, Millwrights, Jason Becker, Andrew Brown, Arc Junkies, Toolfetch, Craftsmanship, Problem-solving, Creativity, Education, Advocacy

RESOURCE LINKS

LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/jason-becker-45407b72

Arc Junkies Podcast: https://arcjunkies.com/

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Welding's Just something that's, uh, once you get involved with it,

it's hard to leave gray hair that should have retired 30 years ago.

Jason Becker is a marine veteran and 25 year welder and the host

of the Arc Junkies podcast.

Everybody's like, go to school, go to college, get a degree, compete for jobs

that there's not really a market for.

I ended up going to business administration that I might in

finance that I went into it.

And then I went into industrial distribution and selling tools

and equipment to welders and carpenters like zigzagged around.

No one held my hand lost.

Why are kids not getting into the welding trade?

Like what?

What do you think there that's holding them back?

Welding is not something you're gonna learn in a week in.

Hi, I'm Andrew Brown.

You're listening to the Lost Star of the Skilled Trades Podcast, a show that

shines the spotlight on careers in the skilled trades that are high paying,

honorable, rewarding, and fulfilling.

The trades are the backbone of the economy that keep us running.

And without them, our world would cease to exist.

All right.

Welcome back to The Lost Art of the Skilled Trades Podcast.

I'm down at the Welding Summit in Texas, Woodlands, Texas, and I had Jason

Becker, host of Arc Junkies podcast.

Welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

It is so good to have you here.

And I remember being on Weld Wednesday.

Yep.

I don't know.

Is that like a year and a half ago?

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And we, we got to connect, uh, obvi obviously through, uh,

the American Welding Society at Fabtech a couple years ago.

Mm-hmm.

And somebody said, uh, I didn't know what you looked like.

So somebody said, see, find the guy with the longest beard.

And I was like, okay.

That's definitely, that's definitely him.

How has the show been for you in the summit here?

What, what do you feel like.

You know, you come to these type of shows, what are you trying to learn?

Anything and everything, uh, like some of the biggest minds in the

welding industry come to these events.

Uh, so you get to pick their brain and chat with 'em and network, you know,

especially like the after hours things.

But there's, there's so many things that, you know, so many different

topics or sessions that they cover here that I don't get exposed to on a

daily basis with the stuff that I do.

You know, so I'm learning more stuff about A SME section nine, you know,

updates to that code book, uh, you know, crack repairs, like all these

different facets of the industry that I'm not directly involved in, but

it's still good information to know.

Yeah, you're, you're always learning, right?

You don't a hundred don't know everything.

You're, you're always learning for the people that don't know

you and obviously my audience.

Um, can you talk just a little bit about sort of your background as a welder?

You know how you got into the craft?

Yeah.

Uh, so I've been welding for the past 26 years.

Uh, I started off at the ripe old age of 15 in high school and I just

kind of fell in love with welding.

I watched my dad cut a piece of chain.

I used to work with him over the summers.

Uh, and he was digging swimming pools at the time.

Well, he was running the excavator.

I was running the shovel.

And um, we got back to the shop one day and, you know, I saw him cut a piece

of steel chain with an oxy fuel torch and I was like, man, that is cool.

Like, I'd never seen anything like that.

So he's like, you know, talked a little bit about it and then, uh, you know, he

told me it's like part of welding and, you know, it's, so I was obviously interested.

Uh, so at my vote or at my high school, I was able to take, um, like skilled trades.

They had skilled trades programs, like a dual enrollment thing.

So I was able to take welding for two years.

Uh, so that's kind of how I got into it.

And then, uh, like right after I graduated, I joined the Marine Corps.

I was a welder in the Marine Corps for four years.

Uh, decided to get out of that.

I got tired of playing in the sandbox, so I came back stateside and, uh, I got a

job doing structural steel iron work and, you know, I just, it's welding's, just

something that's, uh, I've never left it.

It has that tendency, like once you get involved with it, it's hard to leave.

I mean, you talk to some of these guys out here with.

Gray hair that should have retired 30 years ago.

Yeah.

And they're on their third retirement because they just

can't leave the industry.

That something, you know, continuously pulls 'em back.

They love the work that they're doing.

It's intoxicating.

It is.

It really is.

Um, when you were saying that your dad, uh, doing the swimming pool, was

he in construction or was he a welder?

What was his, his background, his back, well, at that time he was doing, uh,

heavy equipment operation, but he also had his CDL, so he could transport

the, uh, the heavy equipment and as well as operate the heavy equipment.

Got it.

Alright.

So he was more your inspiration, would you say that kind of got you?

Yeah, definitely because I mean, like he, he's kinda like a jack of all trades.

He worked oil fields, you know, he is been in construction.

He is got a CDL, like he's a crane operator right now.

Um, so he is always been, you know, blue collar background.

My entire family has been blue collar, but they told me growing up,

they're like, don't do what I do.

Go to to school.

Why, but why?

I don't, well, I think back then, like everybody just kind of bastardized

the bastardized the trades.

So it's not like it is today.

Like now there's a huge push to, to get people into the skilled trades.

Because they realized that they were essential.

Um, and that the world doesn't revolve, you know, the world

can't go around if you don't have people doing the skilled traits.

So now it's becoming a little bit more glorified, uh, to get into skilled trades.

It's becoming a little bit more respected.

Uh, people realize, you know, oh, you don't have to be the dropout, flunky

kid to, you know, get in, you know, to make a good career and a good life.

And.

The skilled trades, you know, everybody's like, go to school, go to college, get a

degree and go out there and compete for jobs that there's not really a market for.

Which doesn't make any sense.

Where's the way I got the degree?

Right.

Where's the ROI on that anyway?

Nothing.

Unless you're, unless you're the one handing out the loan money.

Right.

Exactly.

I always say that I went to, uh, school for four years.

I went to University of Rhode Island.

I was a programmer.

Uh, I did c plus plus.

I was taking these advanced, uh, calculus courses and I was

completely confused 'cause I didn't, no one told me what to do.

And then I ended up going to business administration that I might,

and finance that I went into it.

And then I went into industrial distribution and selling tools

and equipment to welders and carpenters like zigzagged around.

No one held my hand lost.

There's really not like a career path.

Everybody, you know, you go to get a degree, like I did

the same thing, you know?

So like I drank the Kool-Aid, I had the GI bill when I got outta the

military and I was like, well, you know, I gotta go get this degree so

I can make something outta myself.

'cause that's what I've been told.

And you know, I, I chose construction, right?

I was gonna get a degree in construction management because like I was

already in the construction trades.

Like why not?

It'd be an easy transition to get into.

And the further I got along into it and I was like, wait a

minute, I'm gonna make less money.

You know, as a construction manager, you know, managing some of these, you know,

different projects and stuff, and I'm gonna be stuck in a cubicle all the time.

And that's, I don't wanna do the office work.

So like, I finished the degree, so I've got my a a, A, I've got a bachelor's

and I, I just stuck with welding.

I think some of the classes that I took, you know, during my time

in college, I, I don't regret it.

Um, I used some of that information that I learned in there, but, you know, I

didn't pursue that, that path, you know?

Yeah.

I mean, you have to find what lights you up at the end of the day.

And if it's, if it's welding, that's great.

You know, if it's something else, then it, then it's something else.

But you sort of found your, your passion.

How did you, I don't, how did you get into podcasting?

Was it, did you fall into it?

Uh, yeah, I, I literally, it was, uh, it was kind of handed to me.

Um, so in 2019, I left, uh, so I was a welding educator, so I was teaching,

um, post-secondary adult location.

And in 2019, I left that to go make YouTube videos for

a company called weld.com.

Uh, during my time@weld.com, I met the host of the Arc Junkies podcast, the

former host, uh, Jimmy McKnight, down at a, um, at a. Event here in Houston

over at South Coast Welding Academy.

We did like a collaboration with Weld Tube, and so I got to meet Jimmy.

Well, fast forward, you know, I leave weld.com, go back to teaching.

This is like right at, right at the beginning of 2020,

like March, April timeframe.

And Jimmy says, Hey, I'm getting outta the welding industry and it doesn't make

sense for me to host a welding podcast.

And you know, I'm, I'm looking for a host.

And I said, okay, yeah.

Um, you know, I'll call around, you know, I'll see if I can find somebody.

He's like, no, I want you to do it.

And I was like, dude, I don't know anything about podcasting.

Absolutely nothing.

And he's like, I'll walk you through it.

You know, he is like, I'll tell you what gear to get.

I'll give you, you know, we'll do a couple episodes together,

this, that, and the other thing.

And, uh, you know, I'll, I'll just pass everything over to you.

And I was like, I hemmed and hawed for a couple weeks.

And I was like, you know, this is a great resource for the community.

I would hate to see it go away, or, you know, somebody take a hold of it and

just turn it into a heap of garbage.

So.

I called him up and I was like, yep, I'll do it.

And we recorded one episode together and he showed me how

to do the editing via like Zoom.

And he's like, all right man, have fun with it.

And that was five years ago.

Okay.

You've been going on ever since?

Been going ever since.

I am, I'm taking a bit of a hiatus right now.

After the, uh, five years, I put out about 450 episodes and, um, I was like,

man, this is a lot between scheduling.

Well, I mean, you know, scheduling, editing, you know, publishing all

that stuff and promoting the episode plus working a full-time job.

I was like, I need to take some time off.

Wait.

You know?

Wait, you do the own, your own editing everything.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Everything from, from the time I hit record to the time I hit, you

know, submit on my hosting service.

Okay.

Yeah, that's so much to that stuff.

I, I can't, I, I just like being in front of the camera and that's, that's about it.

Anything else?

I'm like, not for me.

Um, interesting.

I didn't realize that.

I thought it would started from scratch.

I didn't realize that you took it over from, from somebody else.

What is it with doing all those episodes, what is it you

like the storytelling aspect?

Do you like the, you know, telling people's stories,

um, and is it only welding?

Do you stay within welding or do you go to any other trades?

For the most part it's, it's all welding.

Uh, so it's a hundred percent anything and everything related to welding

I've had, um, I do, I do like the storytelling aspect of it and that's

why I think I keep coming back.

'cause you find so many interesting people with interesting stories.

Um, you know, I've had everybody on from like artists, you know,

backyard hobbyists, uh, welding educators, inspectors, engineers.

Like I've, I've, you know, hit the gamut of anything and

everything related to welding.

So I've, I did one episode that had nothing to do with welding, although

the guy did dabble in welding.

It was, uh, Rob Dietrich.

He is the master blender for blackened Metallica whiskey

or master distiller for that.

And uh, so I had him on, but his, he kind of has somewhat of a welding

background 'cause he does like custom jeeps and all that stuff.

Okay.

So he dabbles a little bit.

Yeah.

He dabbles in welding.

Yeah.

I think I like the, the story aspect of like telling Shannon's

story, you know, that she's never been introduced to, to my audience.

And just hearing her background and how she got started and just hearing

these inspiring stories, really just to get to the younger generation.

That's really what it comes down to.

Like when I speak tomorrow, 'cause I'm speaking on a topic about, you know,

inspiring the next generation, you know, how to recruit, retain, um, and

build that bridge to, to Gen Z. Um, I, I, I, I enjoy having these stories told

because it helps Gen Z to say, okay, I can have a career in the skilled trades

and I can also be successful, but here is also, um, the ladder of success

because I saw that this person did it.

The person was on Andrew's podcast.

Now I understand.

That's what I love to share to, to the audience.

Oh, for sure.

I mean, welding's just like.

I don't know any other trade like it, and I, I've worked, I

haven't worked in other trades.

I've worked with other trades people.

Welders are like, they're passionate about the work that they do.

I mean, that's like one of the, the careers where you'll, you'll do it

all day for a job and then you'll go home and you'll turn on your welding

machine in the garage and you'll, you'll build something or you'll practice

or, you know, just mess around with it or, you know, fabricate something.

And, um, you know, I don't know too many electricians that go home and

practice wiring, you know, or like plumbers that, you know, they're

practicing plumbing, the toilet.

You know, I just, I just don't see that welding's, uh, it's, it's a different

group of people, different breed.

What is your, what is your thought around why there's not enough welders out there?

So we need about 330,000 welders by 2029.

Why is there such a gap if you know this, this, you know, we're sitting at

this summit and like, it doesn't feel like you are around people you know,

who are interested in the welding trade, but why are kids not getting into.

Welding trade?

Like what, what do you think there?

It's holding them back.

There's several different reasons.

Um, you know, like I said, for, for the longest time, skilled

trades were bastardized, especially welding, like, don't do that.

It's dark, dirty and dangerous and this, that, and everything.

So it's never been really painted in a good light.

Um, you know, for a long time there was, there's, in addition to the

skills gap, there's also a wage gap.

You know, the pay in the industry has been relatively stagnant

for the past couple of decades.

But now that people are realizing, oh.

We don't have enough people.

Well, maybe we should pay them what they're actually worth.

This fires me up because on welding workforce data.com, it says

that it's about $26 and 79 cents median wage, about 50, $53,000.

And then kids say, well, I can't live.

On that.

Right?

I everything's more expensive.

So is it just raise the wages and that will magically get people in?

Or is it more to that?

I think there's, there's more to it.

You gotta get people interested in it.

I, I think we do a very poor job.

I mean the, the shows like, um, you know, monster Garage and American

Choppers, all that stuff back in the day.

Most of the people that I have on my podcast.

So how'd you get into welding?

And they're like, oh man, I saw Jesse James build this awesome, you know, this,

that, and the other, fill in the blank.

Or, you know, these guys from, you know, American choppers build this awesome bike.

And then I got into welding.

So we actually had shows that, you know, it exposed people to welding or exposed

people to skilled trades for that matter.

Um, I, it's starting to come back around to where, you know, everybody's

kind of pushing that agenda because we want to recruit people.

Um.

I think we gotta, we gotta start getting in earlier.

But I mean to, there's just so many reasons why there's, that, that big

gap that we were talking about, you know, like the, the pay was stagnant.

Um, lack of exposure, uh, people pushing degrees and, and I think, you

know, a lot of folks nowadays, they don't wanna work with their hands.

Um, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I mean, if, like, if, if it's not for you, like, don't do it.

But I think they, we also glamorize the wrong professions.

You know, so you got like your, your Beyonces and Cardi Bs and you know, all

these football players and gamers and talkers and stuff like that, and they're

like fully loaded in doing like, minimal effort that you see on the screen.

It's like, you know, so every, I think everybody wants to be like

the next big influencer, Mr. Beast.

You know, like all these things.

They're like, oh man, this, this guy, you know, he just plays video games all day

and he's, you know, driving a Maserati.

You know, it's, it's not very practical.

I mean, you're looking at like 0.0001% of the population that can actually do that.

So it's, yeah, I mean like shoot for that goal, but also like learn a skilled

trade just in case you're not the next Mr. Beast or Cardi B or whatever.

You got something to fall back on, you know?

Exactly.

And, and, and the wage, uh, pushback.

I see this a lot on social because, um, I'm on TikTok and, and and

YouTube and a lot of social platforms, but I love TikTok because.

The comments there and just the engagement there.

And a lot of the, a lot of the pushback is, okay, I'm only as an apprentice,

I'm only making 16 to $18 an hour.

This is the way they view it.

And then I'm looking at working at McDonald's or Chipotle,

where 2120 $2 an hour.

Why would I do this, you know?

Welding and versus making money, making more money right away.

But it doesn't tell the full story of, you know, year one as apprentice, year

two, and as you, you know, you scale up.

Um, but I think a lot of kids really view that and they just, they look

at other avenues and they also look at, they want instant gratification

instead of delayed gratification.

Yeah, I mean, that, that's a big point.

I mean, you, you raise a, a great, you know, point.

Why would I wanna go make 16 bucks an hour as an apprentice when I can go over

to Chipotle and make 21 bucks an hour?

Well, guess what?

You know, 10 years into Chipotle, you may get like a $3 raise with

like no pension, no annuity, no benefits or anything like that.

You start off as an apprentice, 16, 17 bucks an hour.

When I went through the Iron Workers Union, they gave me a dollar raise.

It's roughly a dollar raise every thousand hours that I worked

throughout my apprenticeship.

So, I mean, yeah, you start off, I think I started off around 19 and I, you know,

by the time I topped out, I was making 23.

Plus you got all the fringe benefits.

I had free medical, free dental.

That wasn't, that didn't come outta my pocket.

It didn't come outta my wages that came outta the employer's wages.

Uh, a pension annuity, like all these different benefits.

Yeah, it's massive.

I mean, when you add it all up, it's, I mean, there's, there's a lot of money to

be made, but you said you, they want to, they want that instant gratification, you

know, short, a little bit of effort and a lot of, you know, a, a lot of reward at

the end, and that's just not realistic.

Yeah.

Um, if someone wants to take the path and they're money

driven in, in welding, right?

They finish their apprenticeship, their journeyman, like, what

are the next handful of steps that, or what can they get into?

If they want to make more than the median wage, where would

you tell them to go into?

In welding?

Anything specialty related?

Um, you know, process piping, pressure piping, uh, piping.

Anything, anything that is related to pipe that pays, you know, pretty good money.

Uh, get outta the shop, you know, uh, make a little bit less money working in a shop.

If you are traveling welder, uh, rig welders or, you know, the people

that have their own businesses.

I mean, they make really good money, but they have to travel.

They've gotta go around from shutdown down to shutdown and all these turnarounds

and different things like that.

I mean, they just raking the money and they can work on their own schedule,

but it's not for the faint of heart.

What, you know, those guys that are out there making a hundred thousand

dollars a year, what people don't see behind the scenes is, yeah,

they're working seven days a week.

You know, they're putting in 60, 70, 80 hours a week at a lot

of overtime, a lot of per diem.

Uh, working in harsh conditions, you know, it's not very friendly.

It's, it's a lot of hard work.

Uh, you're not gonna find a job that's 15 minutes from the house, uh, where

you can go in there, you know, walk in every day, and they're gonna pay

you a hundred thousand dollars salary every year, welding up widgets.

You know, that's not gonna happen.

You gotta be realistic.

You gotta go where the money is.

When I used to teach college, I would help my students with job placement

and the salary range for students coming outta the program was anywhere

from 17 to $32 an hour, depending on where the students wanted to go.

Everybody wanted to go to the $32 an hour job.

Right?

That's, that's, oh man, there's, there's an employer that's gonna starting

pay is $32 an hour plus benefits.

They didn't want to do the work to get there.

They wanted to put in minimal effort at the school and they couldn't

even pass the weld test, you know, to, to work for that employer.

But the people that they did qualify for, that's your 17,

$18 an hour, you know, jobs.

So you gotta be willing to put in the work, the effort.

A lot of time under the hood, a lot of practice fail forward.

There's a lot of that.

Do you think, and this might be controversial, um.

You're not seeing the hard work that was once done.

So like you and I are Gen Xers, I presume, um, you know, a Gen

ZA lot of people look at it and some will say, well, they're lazy.

They're, they, and I always say that they have different motivators.

They don't think they're lazy at all, but what is it?

I mean, they just want it not to work hard for it.

I think it's, I think as a society we've gotten very comfortable,

you know, we've got all these instant gratification, right?

You want something, you pull it up on your phone, uh, you want something from

the store, you know, just door dash it, you know, like, so everything has been

driven towards comfort and convenience.

Like when I was a kid, we didn't have all that.

It's like, so go outside and play and I live in Florida, it's

a hundred degrees year round.

Like go outside and play.

Like we would go, it is a kind of a harsh environment.

Um, but we, we grew up building stuff and tinkering around and like having

fun and being outdoors and doing things with our hands and, you know.

Just projects, building tree forts and stuff like that.

Now you can't get kids off the couch because they're watching Mr.

Beast videos or they're, you know, they're playing their Xbox or their pc, you know,

they're on Fortnite and, uh, all this, others are Minecraft and stuff like that.

So they, we just haven't, they haven't been forced to work hard yet, you

know, so by the time they're 18, 19, and they really haven't done anything,

they've got no employable skills.

Um.

You know, you, you can't just teach work ethics overnight.

You know, I, I used to go bale hay with my uncle over the summer

and I thought that was awesome.

And he did it like, you know, a hundred year old type farming mechanisms.

Everything is drawn off of a horse.

Uh, just 'cause that's the way he liked to do it.

And so I, like, I learned hard work as a young kid throwing 80 pound bales hay on

the back of a trailer during the summer.

Yeah.

I, I do think it's very different 'cause I look at my own kids.

My daughter's eight, my son's 11.

Even their friends, like you said, they're on social media, well not social media,

but mostly on games and stuff like that.

And it's just, it's just different, you know, like you

said, it's instant gratification.

If they, I, I was telling them about like shows and we had

to sit through commercials.

I was sit, you don't do that anymore.

You just, you know, fast forward or if you want something, you

know, uh, through Netflix or, or Amazon video, like it's easy.

When we, back in the day, you had to wait till next week for the show to come on.

It's, it's not like that anymore.

So I think it was, it, I, I think we're used to, as this generation, or at least

our generation, that instant gratification is not necessarily, it's, it's o and for

me personally, it's okay for me it to take two or three years to figure something

out and to get where I want to be.

Not everybody's like that, especially that, that generation, I don't.

Well, they don't have the patience and they, they've got the attention span of a

nap because everybody's favorite pastime is like TikTok and Instagram reels.

And, you know, they started off longer format.

Well now, you know, they shrunk it down like Instagram reels like 90

seconds and you gotta get somebody's attention within five seconds.

Otherwise they're flipping through, you know?

So if the kids don't like something, they don't have to deal with

hardship, you know, they just swipe.

If you don't wanna watch a commercial, cool, just, you know,

like wait for that little button to pop and then you hit skip boom.

Like, I instant gratification.

Same thing you're talking about, you know, having instant access to Netflix and you

know, download movies and stuff like that.

We had to get in a car on a Friday night.

Blockbuster.

Go to Blockbuster.

Blockbuster and like, you know, hopefully they had the movie

that you wanted to see in stock.

If not, never was.

Yeah.

Then release was back the next Friday.

Um, so like we had to deal with, like, you had to learn patience as a kid.

Now, it's right now, right now, right now.

And like, you know, I'm a father myself.

I've got a, a 13-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.

And every once in a while they're like, if they don't have their devices or

whatever, they're like, oh, I'm bored.

That is awesome.

Learn how to harness that emotion and be okay with it, you know, because

then you get these people that have anxiety complexes because, you know,

they, they, they can't get it right now, and it, they freak out and they melt

down and they don't know what to do.

It's like, experience some hardship.

You know?

They don't have to, you know, I had to walk to school when I was in elementary.

My kids don't do that.

One of 'em gets bused by mom and then the other one, you know, gets

picked up by an actual school bus.

Like, they don't have to deal with any hardships.

Yeah, I just think it's a, i it's a different generation.

They want sort of different things.

Um, when you're teaching students, um, what's the feeling, you know, in

the classroom for those individuals?

Are they engaged?

Um.

They, they want to get into the trades or is it just, I'll learn a

couple of things and it was when I was teaching full-time at the college.

'cause my, the, the school that I own and operate now is a little bit different than

like your post-secondary adult vocation.

But when I was doing PSAV classes, it was, it was a mix.

You get some people in there, they knew they wanted to be a welder.

They knew that they were gonna do something in this career.

They had a path.

Right.

And this was like just one stepping stone to, to success for them.

Some of 'em were like, I think it's kind of cool.

I want to give it a shot.

And then others were like, my mom told me I had to go get a job, or I

had to go to school and you know, I figured this would be an easy class.

So, I mean, you, you get this dynamic mix and I always thought it was kind of

cool 'cause I could, you know, every once in a while I'd get one of the lazy kids

and get 'em hooked on welding and then they would start to find that passion

and that drive and you slowly, along the way you teach them, you know, work

ethics and isn't that fulfilling to you?

It's great.

It's great.

Like I had several students that, you know, the complete success stories,

you know, complete 180 turnarounds, but you can't reach everybody.

Right.

You know, so it was like.

By the time the the program was completed, about like 80% of them were gonna go

on and do something in the industry.

The other 20% were still living at home.

They're probably gonna take another class because they don't wanna go get a job.

Who, in your mind, because you said success stories, is there one success

story that you can share that just pops?

I had a, uh, yeah, I had a student that, um.

He was a, a veteran, got outta the military, fell on hard times.

He was living at this place called the Transition House.

Uh, this, this young man, he would ride his bicycle, but he also followed, you

know, he had some issues with the law.

Um, he would ride his bicycle to school every morning, and the guy

that, you know, opened the facility every morning, he was there at six 30.

This kid's on his bicycle every day waiting for him.

Class doesn't start till seven 30.

They'd open the facility, he'd go right back to the computer lab and they had

like this online training stuff that was, you know, like part of the curriculum.

But you could also take extra classes and get additional certificates

halfway through the program.

I didn't realize it, but he quit going back to the transition house 'cause he

was experiencing problems over there.

So he started living in the woods.

This young man, by the time he graduated, he had 75 certificates

from this online course, plus all of his welding certificates, plus

the certificate of completion.

And he was able to go get a job up in the, uh, the Panhandle of

Florida doing ship building, and he was able to get his act together.

Well, I mean, he kind of had his act together, uh, but he was able to get up

there and spend time with his daughter and his new granddaughter, and now

he had a career and a set of skills.

How old was he?

What was, uh, I would say he was probably mid to late thirties.

Mid to late thirties.

So he started later?

Yeah.

Wow.

Well, because he was, you know, got outta the military and stuff.

Sorry.

So it's never too late.

No, it's never too late.

I, I had a guy, uh, Brad, he took my welding class and Brad was 65.

65. Yeah.

So what was Brad doing beforehand?

He was a window glazer for 20 years.

So I said, Brad, you're, I'm just, I like, I'm I'll teach you welding, I'll

teach you anything you wanna, like, what do you wanna do with this skill?

He's like, I'm gonna go get a job doing welding at 65.

He's like, yep, more power to you, man.

That's awesome.

So he started a second career.

At the age of 65, he went and he learned how to weld, and then

he went and got a job welding.

Wow.

Good for him.

So it's, it is never too, never too late to learn.

Um, the school that I run right now, it's mostly for home

hobbyists, weekenders, DIYers.

I get a lot of people in here that like, you know, I, I, I've been working, you

know, for the past 30, 40 years and I've always wanted to learn how to weld.

And now that I'm retired, that's what I'm gonna do, you know, so

they'll come in and learn how to weld so they can tinker at the house.

I love that I had a 76-year-old man come in and take my welding class.

Oh shit.

76. And was he in a trade before that?

He was, uh, Florida Highway Patrol.

Interesting.

And at 76 decided that he wants to Yep.

Do welding.

So you never know.

Never know.

You never know.

Um, your school, how long is it?

How long is the program typically?

The longest program I offer is 36 hours.

36 hours, okay.

Which is like, just enough to get your feet wet.

I'll tell you.

So like we, we cover like stick me and TIG all in one week.

It's built for home hobbyists, makers, and DIYers.

Um, it's not meant to get somebody out into the industry and start

working, however, it has been like a test drive for a lot of folks.

They come in and they're like, man, I really like this.

How do I get more so, like, I'm, I'm thinking about

making a career out of this.

I will refer them to other schools in the area that have that long-term

training program where they can get those employable skills.

Um.

It baffles me how many people call up and they say, Hey, I've never welded before.

I want to come in and take your one week class and get certified after that.

Or, can you help me with job placement once I get done with the program?

It's like, no, welding is not something you're gonna learn in a week.

You're gonna have to hands-on a hundred percent hands-on practice for 250

to 300 hours per process to get good enough to be able to, to get certified.

So it's not something you can just, you know, take a crash course and get

certified and go out in the industry.

Like, I mean, there's a reason most welding schools are anywhere

from six months to a year.

Yeah.

Um, and it's not instant gratification, but it's great that you're getting all

types of people and all types of ages.

Um, going through your, going through your classes, um, if somebody is

just starting out or thinking about welding, 'cause I'm thinking about

my audience, I'm thinking about, uh, the questions we get on social media.

If someone's thinking about going into welding, should they go to a trade school?

Should they just get an apprenticeship?

What should, what should they do?

It depends on your goals or you know, what you wanna do with welding.

I would say if you know you want to be a structural steel iron worker or you,

you want to get in, you know, do sheet metal or something like that, like yeah,

go into one of the unions because that apprenticeship program is completely free.

If you want to get into welding and you're not sure what you want to do with

it, I would recommend a trade school.

So it just depends on where, where you wanna go, what you wanna do.

And like a lot of folks, they don't have a union close to them, right?

So this, it'd be difficult for them to get into it.

Uh, the great thing about the union is you can learn on the job during

your apprenticeship, but like I said, you know, if you want to get

into something where there's not a union, which that's awesome too.

Um, I've worked union and non-union.

There's pros and cons to both.

But you know, I, if you're gonna get into something that's not union

related, I would recommend going to the trade school, trade school.

I, I just, I don't wanna dabble too much in the union, but I'm, I'm I The question

would be mainly 'cause there's limited amount of seats in the union, right?

So what happens if you try to, and this happens quite often,

someone applies and they get either waitlisted, they just, they can't get

in and they're, they're discouraged.

Do you think that they should reapply?

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, that's my, my hall does the, the hall that I was a part of before I left.

Um, that's, I mean, they would retain your application.

So if they weren't, if you didn't make it during like the, this, the,

the August list, you know, you might be able to get in in January and

if not, like your application still keeps going to the top, you're gonna

eventually get a phone call and what can somebody work on the next time around

so they can maybe get their, get their way into to the union if they got.

It just depends because it's not a, it's not like a skills assessment.

When they, when they bring you in, uh, you gotta meet the basic requirement

and you gotta wanna be there.

So, you know, for, you know, if they didn't get selected this time,

it's just probably due to where they were on the pecking order, uh, how

they submitted their application.

Um, you know, it's, they'll probably end up getting a call back.

But I mean, like, get into something related to skill

skilled trades, I would recommend.

I've also recommended to some folks.

Like go to the school, like go to a trade school, learn welding.

If you know you want to get into structural steel, iron work, pipe

welding, anything like that, you want to go to the union route.

Apply for the union once you get done with the trade school, because that's

kind of what helped me, like when I went to the Iron Workers Union,

I did iron, I did structural steel, iron work, and then I joined the Iron

Workers Union and I did ornamental the entire time that I was there.

Like I did very little structural steel iron work when I joined the Iron

Workers Union because I had skill sets that they didn't teach at the hall.

You know, I could read blueprints, which I mean, they teach that, but I had, um,

I could do gas tanks and arc welding.

I could do gas metal arc welding.

I could do stainless steel aluminum things that they don't teach at the hall.

The hall primarily taught stick welding and, uh, self shield flux core.

But because I had these other skill sets of, you know, fabrication

and stuff like that, they sent me out to work at the theme parks.

So that, so it was kinda like a niche, you know, industry that very few people

could qualify for because they didn't have that skillset and it's not something

that the hall was able to teach them.

But that, that previous skillset of going through a, you know, a, a welding

school is what got me the job that got me sent out there and it got me,

you know, kept me working year round.

And how long were you in the union for?

Four years.

Four years, okay.

If somebody wants to go.

I just wanna switch gears to trade school and I just want

to hear your thoughts on this.

Um, there's a lot of pushback with trade schools that a lot of trade schools do

say, you can come to our trade school, you're most likely gonna get a job after.

Um, that's not always the case and that's just feedback that I get out there is that

I went to trade school and it's eight, nine months and I still have not found a

job and I've sent out all these resumes.

What do I do at that point?

Move or like apply somewhere else.

So it, it really depends, like what I tell people is do research on the school

that you go to because, uh, I'll be a hundred percent honest, there's employers

out there that if they see a specific school's name on that application, that

application's gonna go in the trash.

Just because they have a proven track record of not being able to produce

a qualified candidate for employment.

Uh, so I would say do your research on the school that you're gonna attend.

Uh, you can check out glassdoor.com.

They, there's reviews on there.

Uh, just look at the program, look at the school, what's

their job placement rate like?

They schools are, you know, a lot of 'em are, they pride

themselves on their placement rate.

Go check out their placement rates.

You know, possibly I would let students, uh, or potential students come into my

program and talk to my current students.

You know and say, Hey, how are you enjoying the program?

How's everything going?

And students aren't gonna sugarcoat it.

They don't care if you sign up for that class or not.

So they're gonna tell you a hundred percent truth.

But there's, there's some schools out there that are better than others.

So, I mean, it's like, you know, making any other big decision in life.

Don't do it on a whim.

Don't just walk in there and be like, oh, you know, this, this school down the road.

You know, they teach welding, you know, the tuition's affordable.

You may not have a great instructor, you know, you may not learn what you think.

You're getting ready to learn all the stuff that's listed on that pamphlet.

You may not cover that.

I know some folks, um, in my area.

They go to a specific school, and if you look at the, um, the information

on their, their pamphlet, you're gonna learn all these different things.

And when they get out, they only did one process the entire time Really?

And, and they still weren't good at it when they left.

Interesting.

So it, it just depends on who the instructor is.

Um, I do like a lot of the for-profit welding schools versus the not-for-profit

like your colleges and stuff like that.

Only because yes, the tuition is a little bit higher.

It's owned, operated, managed, and the instruction is all done

by people from the industry.

Uh, the problem with, uh, a lot of the not-for-profits like your, your

colleges and stuff like that, they're hurting for instructors because industry

pays almost double of what they're gonna pay their instructors there.

So it's, and if you get somebody that applies for that, they probably

weren't really good in the industry.

Um, I got sucked into teaching.

Uh, so one of my professors, like, he kind of encouraged me and it turns

out that I, I just fell in love with it and I, I really enjoyed teaching.

But there's folks out there that they start teaching for the wrong reasons.

You know, they're in it because, oh, you know, I get the summers off

and I get this, and, you know, they try teaching welding from their

office and you just can't do that.

Like, you've gotta be out there with the students in the shop every single day.

If the students are there in the shop, you gotta be in the shop.

Some places aren't like that, you know, they don't have that, that mindset of

these people are paying my, my salary.

Like I need to go out there and, and give them a hundred percent.

I think it's, wow, I didn't realize that certain trade schools have, they see that,

you know, there's not qualified, let's say welders coming out of those schools.

That's, uh, that's, wow.

Didn't realize that.

It, it happens.

It happens.

I'm sure it happens with other skilled trade professions as well.

Hvac, electrical, plumbing.

Yeah.

And.

For people who don't know how long a trade school is a welding

school, how long is that?

Typical program.

It depends, like the one I taught at was 1,050 hours.

So they would knock it out and, you know, we'd do two sessions.

Uh, we had weld welding level one was 22 weeks.

Welding level two was another 22 weeks.

So a total of 44 weeks, um, just under a, a full calendar year.

Uh, now they, they've, before I left, we, we redid that program and it's

28 weeks, so within about six months, it's same content, same information.

You just get a little bit longer hours.

Okay, that makes sense.

And it's a little bit more fast paced.

So we actually started interviewing the students beforehand to make sure

they would have the aptitude and the drive to, to complete that program.

You know, not every kid can move that obviously wants a job and

you know, they can't, they can't find a job if somebody is stuck.

Let's say they, and I've heard this as well, where they'll get a job and they're

just not getting the money that they want.

They're getting obviously taught different things, but they're

not getting the money they want.

Do you think that they should just leave at that point?

Like take the knowledge that they got from this particular company and move on if

they're not getting the money that they should, or maybe there's something they're

not doing, they're not, you know, climbing that ladder of success 'cause maybe

they're just not doing something, you know, that the company sees some value.

It, it really depends.

I mean, the welding industry is one industry where we tend to use a lot

of the companies as stepping stones.

Uh, because we'll, we'll go in there and we'll work and you, you cap out and pay

and maybe you do have the skills, you know that, that you should be getting

paid more if you know that you're supposed to be, or if you're worth more.

Go, don't quit, like line up.

Make sure you got another job before you leave.

Right.

Um, anytime I've left the job, I've had a job already lined up.

So don't just quit a job and be like, you know, I'm just start,

you know, next week beating the concrete and trying to find a job.

Don't do that.

Uh, but yeah, if you feel that you're getting underpaid or you're

undervalued where you're at and you think you have the skills, yes.

Go and apply somewhere else and you know that's gonna pay you more.

Yeah.

Don't stay stagnant.

No.

And just continuously learn.

I mean, it's like we live in it.

Information, you know.

We live in a a day and age where information and

access to it is everywhere.

You know, whether it's on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, you can learn

all these different techniques and processes and different things.

Uh, and the, the great thing about the welding industry is there's

so many different avenues to go.

I mean, you can get into aerospace, you can get into motorsport,

you can get into structural, ornamental, custom fabrication.

There's a lot of different paths in this trade.

So like, if you're not doing great in one industry or you know you're

not having a lot of fun, maybe try switching into a different industry.

You're still, you know, it still revolves around welding.

Are you seeing companies that are looking for too much experience?

So someone, let's say, comes outta trade school and now starts applying.

Um, some companies are asking for three to five years of experience, but that

person doesn't have the experience and are shut out of some of these companies.

What does somebody do and should companies look at hiring?

People with not that much experience.

So someone who's just out of trade school, because a lot of companies,

you know, there's somebody aging out that has 15 years of experience.

That new person is not gonna know what the 15 year person.

But do companies need to say, okay, I need to look at somebody that

doesn't have as much experience, bring 'em in, mentor them, train them.

Are you seeing companies asking for too much experience upfront?

That's, that's a lot to unpack there, but yes.

Yeah.

Um, employers, yes.

I think they want too much for what they're willing to pay.

And that's what I used to tell students.

That's what I tell people that reach out to me via Instagram or email all

the time is, oh yeah, I don't meet that three to five year minimum requirement.

Cool.

Apply anyway.

Because the guys and gals that are out there that have that three to

five years worth of work experience, they're not gonna accept what

they're willing to pay that position.

So you go in, you apply, and you know, chances are you're gonna

get the job because they can't find anybody else, you know?

But I think companies need to do a better job of bringing

folks in and mentoring them.

That's one of the things that I did when I was teaching at the college.

I would go, we had class Monday through Thursday.

So on Fridays, I still had to work.

I didn't have students.

I would go out and meet with local employers.

Hey, what are you looking for?

What type of work do you do?

You know, are you guys looking for em?

Employees, you know, come check out my school, let me bring my students

and, and tour your facility, and kind of build that relationship.

And a lot of companies are like, no, you know, we're

looking for the more experienced people and this and everything.

So well, why don't you take somebody that doesn't have any bad habits?

That has the passion to drive the motivation and they've got the

technical skills to back it up and train them to do what you do here and

you're gonna have an awesome employee.

Are they open to you?

Treat 'em right?

A a lot of employers, they started changing their mind.

Yeah.

Well, because I mean, like they're, they, you've got all these

people aging outta the workforce.

Nobody's coming in behind 'em.

Why not take the people that are willing and eager to learn that don't have

that experience yet, and put 'em with that old person or elder person, more

seasoned person before they retire and get them skilled up and trained.

Do you think companies are doing a good enough job on the mentorship side?

No.

Why is that?

Is it they're too busy?

Is it too busy?

Or is the person who let's say, has been there for X amount of years saying.

I don't wanna train up someone who's new, they might take my job.

Is that you think that's, I don't think that that was the case when I was

coming up, coming up through the trades.

Um, you know, oh, I don't wanna show you how to read blueprints or

show you how I do this, that, and other thing, because then, you know,

you're, you're getting paid less because I'm the more seasoned guy.

I've got all this experience and you know, if I teach you what I

know, they're just gonna fire me.

I don't, that's not the case anymore.

Um, you get on a lot of these job site or job shops are in these shops

and the older generation, they want to teach, they want to mentor, they

want to pass that information off.

Um, so it's a different mentality.

It's a different mindset.

Now, I don't think companies do, most companies in general do a

great job of bringing people in.

And providing that, you know, that training, uh, and putting them with a

more seasoned welder because they're more worried about getting parts out the door.

So I think that's the biggest thing is they don't set up a training program.

You know, they don't have like apprenticeship programs or anything

like that, but more and more companies are starting to set up

their own in-house training programs and apprenticeship programs.

And that's kind of one of the other facets of the business that I have.

I'm, you know, working with more companies to skill up their workforce because

they have a younger, inexperienced workforce and a lot of the, the people

that have been there 10, 15, 20 years, they're aging out or they already have.

Do you think those kids get discouraged and maybe wanna leave

because they're not being mentored?

So, if I understand what you're saying, some companies are obviously now

getting the picture of like, you need to mentor, but the ones that are not.

It could be a revolving door.

Those kids come in and after x amount of months, they, they leave

and then the company's running.

Why are they leaving?

Is it because that, like you said, they get, they're getting, they're busy.

They can't pull somebody who's experienced off whatever

project because there's no time.

Do these kids leave because they don't get the mentorship

that they, that they should?

I think so.

Yeah.

Or they're feeling underappreciated.

And I think that's, that's usually a management issue.

Uh, what I tell people is like, I've never quit a job.

I've quit management.

I think that's, if you don't provide that opportunity for them

to learn and grow and excel, I mean, that's what people wanna do.

They get into a job.

Nobody wants to stay at the bottom rung the entire time.

If you do, if you're out there listening, you, you're a bottom rung kind of person.

Like, no, I'm not throwing any shade.

But like most people coming in, they want to take that next step in the career.

You know, they, they're starting a career.

Welding's not something you get in as a part-time job, right?

It's a career.

So if you're not giving them opportunity and room for growth and

education in that trade, they're probably gonna leave you, right?

You need to have training, you need to have mentorship.

And you need to have, show them what The ladder of success.

Yeah.

You gotta give 'em a path.

Or like, you know, when you sit down, you know, that's like the, the

obligatory question they ask you, where do you see yourself in five years?

Right.

Shit question.

It's a BS question.

Right.

But I mean, like, if they tell you, you know, here's what I wanna do, like provide

them steps to get there, help them out.

You know, I always tell employers when I'm talking to 'em, like, you need to

train your people well enough to leave and treat 'em well enough to stay.

That's the biggest thing.

And, and most folks, you know, especially in welding, for some reason, they're like,

well, if I give 'em an opportunity and I, you know, get 'em certified and this,

that, and the other thing, and I pay for their education, they're just gonna leave.

Okay, well that tells me you got a shitty management system.

Because like, if you train them, you know, and they're gonna stay and make more

money for your company, also pay them.

Now they have this additional new knowledge that, yes, you

paid, you paid for, but now they're a more valuable employee.

Pay them that value.

Right.

And treat them with respect.

And, you know, they'll stay, they're not gonna, they're not gonna leave

because, oh, I'm certified now.

I can get outta here.

No.

Let them be ambassadors for your own company.

Yeah.

You know, treat them well.

How quickly should a company, when somebody starts.

Should they be with a mentor?

Is it right away?

I would say day one.

Day one.

Let stick 'em with somebody that's, you know, experienced it.

You know, I mean, if nothing else for the safety aspect of it, you

know, especially if you're coming outta trade school, like you don't

have access to a lot of equipment that's on some of these shop floors.

On a job site where like everything out there is a hazard, you know, like day

one they need to be with a mentor, with a seasoned individual to, you know, learn

and help and, you know, kind of like a, on the job training as an apprentice

would do, you know, very similar to that.

You don't, you don't take the new apprentice and like set 'em up three

stories and say, Hey man, go tie in that moment connection, right?

You, you kind of work into that and the only way you can do that

is, you know, with a mentor.

And is there a certain, uh, level of experience that

somebody should be with a mentor?

Like is it.

How many years in should somebody be?

Or does, does it matter?

Like is it five years?

Like I think it can be like case by case basis.

Case by case.

You know, 'cause everybody kinda learns a little bit different.

You know, some are, you know, a lot faster, some are a little bit slower,

some are bringing, you know, previous skills to the table, some aren't.

So it's not like a real defined answer.

But I would say, you know, at least get 'em with a seasoned person for,

you know, three, three to six months.

Three to six months.

Yeah.

I don't think kids are willing enough to ask for help.

I don't know.

It's hard to ask for help.

But if the company is already putting that in place, like you said,

within the first day, because when somebody comes in, somebody who's

new, they, within the first 24 hours, they get a feeling of the culture.

They get a feeling of what's what it's like there.

And sometimes even day one or day two, they know already this is not right.

You know?

And then they, they move on within a handful of months.

And then the company that has been all put all this time and

effort into that individual.

Maybe paid for recruiting costs, whatever, all of a sudden that person leaves.

But really it's because the company has a leaky bucket.

They didn't put them with a mentor, they didn't have the right training.

No, a hundred percent.

I mean that's, that's why they should have like training programs and

mentorship programs and stuff like that.

Jason, is there anything else that we didn't cover?

Anything about your school or anything about welding that would

be beneficial to, to the audience?

I mean, there's, there's so much to it.

But I would say welding, welding is for everybody.

It's a very diverse group of individuals that come from all walks of life.

Uh, at the end of the day, everybody's passionate about welding.

So there's room in this industry for everybody as long as you're

willing to, you know, work hard.

Uh, so if you're thinking about getting into welding, you want

to get into welding school, like, don't be afraid of hard work.

Um, I mean, it's not necessarily glamorous, but, um, you know, it's.

It's provided for my family and I for the last 30 years.

Like I said, I've got into welding when I was 15.

I've never been without a job, well, career like this has been my career.

I've worked at many different places, but usually I've got other companies

calling me, trying to recruit me a bad thing while I'm working for somebody else.

You know, it's, and it's not a bad thing, you know, you get more opportunities,

but yeah, like welding is for everybody.

So if you're thinking about.

Getting into it.

Like, go find a good welding school or a, you know, a good apprenticeship

program through your local union or whatever direction you want to

go, go give it a shot, try it out.

And it's a skillset that nobody can take away from you.

You know, if you get in there, you put in your 6, 8, 10 months at the, at the

school and you're like, you know what?

Uh, I got this other job opportunity.

Cool, go do that, but like at least you got something to fall back on.

It's a skill set nobody can take and you can do some really cool stuff with

it, even if you don't do it as a career.

Like I recommend welding to everybody.

Even, like you said, even if it, you don't, uh, you don't have a career in

welding, at least you can do stuff, you know, some pretty cool stuff personally.

On the side.

And I mean, you can also get into things like sale technical sales as a welder.

Um, you can get into like the manufacturing business, manufacturing

and supplying welding goods and services, uh, equipment repair.

You can get into welding, inspection, welding engineering, like these are,

it's not just the people that are under the hood that the, the industry is

short, you know, outta 300,000 people.

It's not just the people under the hood that were short, we're short,

the engineers, the inspectors, the eng, you know, like all that stuff.

And there's so many grants and scholarships that are available.

Whether it's through the American Welding Society or the Microworks Foundation,

you can apply for a scholarship.

They give you a bunch of money to go pursue your, your, your career as

a welder or as a welding engineer.

The number you just said, the 300,000.

What happens if we don't do anything about it and we stay

reactive instead of proactive?

What happens?

I think as a country, we're, we're gonna, we're gonna lose it.

And one thing you've, you've touched today that welding hasn't been a part of.

Everything.

I mean the the car you drive, the bridge, you go over the building we're

sitting in right now, the chairs we're sitting on like all of this stuff.

Welding has touched that in some form or fashion.

So if we can't produce, we're gonna be a society of consumers and that's not gonna

work out really well for us as a whole.

I think it's like 97% of our GDP revolves around welding.

So if we can't hit that mark, we're just consumers.

How long can you do that Without any income.

You can't replace that robots.

No.

Not gonna happen.

Most of the companies that I talk to that, that start automating, you

know, 'cause everybody's like, oh, the robots are gonna take my job for,

it's like for every welding mach or every robotic cell that they buy,

they end up hiring two more welders.

Funny you said that.

'cause I had spoken to Miller about cobalt welding and what they're doing.

They said it creates more jobs when you think the opposite of

like, it's gonna take my job.

Well, I mean, you gotta have somebody to program it.

You gotta have somebody to maintain it.

You gotta have somebody to, you know, to pro, you know, uh, swap

out the parts and all that stuff.

Make sure it's doing what it's supposed to be doing, reload it with filler

metal, make sure the gases are correct.

It's running the appropriate settings so it creates more work

because now you know that company's got more volume of work coming in.

They're gonna have to hire more people to handle that volume as well.

Robots aren't gonna do everything.

I mean, it's, it's gonna actually free up your workforce to go, you know,

let's, let's bid on some of more of these, these complicated projects

that, you know, we can't automate.

You know?

Now I take some of my best welders and I put 'em on that.

Maybe I take the new person and put them over there running the robot

and like, these robots are super simple to learn how to operate.

Now, you know, you teach it with an iPhone and it's just pictures and

buttons, but it gets kids interested working with, you know, yeah.

Machines and I mean, they got CNC plasma cutters.

You literally operate with an Xbox remote control.

Like a lot of the robots, I think, um, uh, ready a has a cobot when they

first started coming out with theirs.

Um, it, the Teach Penant is literally an iPad and the

techs can operate it remotely.

Uh, they can just port right into it via their cell phone, you know, when

they're halfway across the country.

Yeah.

I love it.

And kids are already obviously on the iPad.

Yep.

It definitely how to run those things.

Yeah.

Jason, if people wanna find out more information about you and

your school and social media and podcast, where do they go?

Uh, so for the podcast information, you can follow me on, uh, arc

Junkies podcast on Instagram.

Uh, that's pretty much the only place I really operate with that.

Uh, if you're interested in listening to the show, it's

available on Spotify, apple iTunes.

Uh, the welding school is underground hyphen metalworks.com, and we're

located in Orlando, Florida.

Good stuff.

Jason.

You have a wealth of knowledge and I, I appreciate you coming on the show.

And, uh, I'm looking forward to the rest of the, uh, summit.

I appreciate you having me.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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