Shownotes
Welding education is experiencing a resurgence, with students more eager than ever to learn the trade.
Matt Scott, a welding instructor from Portland Community College, shares his 30+ years of experience in training the next generation of welders and explains how the pandemic has reshaped both student engagement and the industry itself.
In this episode, Matt talks about the post-pandemic shift in welding education, highlighting how today’s students—especially Gen Z—are driven, hungry, and ready to enter the workforce.
We discuss the evolution of welding programs, the importance of collaboration among students, and the growing demand for skilled welders across various industries.
Matt also shares real success stories from his students, such as a young welder who made $15,000 by age 19, and explains how Portland Community College's state-of-the-art welding facility and mobile welding trailer are transforming the future of hands-on education.
Highlights:
- Matt’s journey from high school metal shop to a career in welding education
- How the pandemic has created a new level of enthusiasm in welding students
- The vital role of teamwork and mentorship in the welding trade
- Inspiring success stories from Matt’s students
- The cutting-edge tools and programs at Portland Community College that are shaping the future of education
If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and leave a review to help others discover the show!
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Transcripts
Welcome back to the show, Brad Herder. How you doing, my friend?
Brad Herda (:I am fantastic Mr. Stephen Doyle. The March weather has been phenomenal here. The golf season has started early in the state of Wisconsin and there's no snow, no nothing. We're waiting for the second winter or third winter possibly to come yet, but right now we're going to enjoy the first spring.
Steve Doyle (:What?
Steve Doyle (:Ooh, ooh yeah. For those that play golf, I can see how this is nice. I can see that. Right? It's always good. So Brad, who do we got on the show today?
Brad Herda (:It's extra, it's bonus rounds for the year, so it's all good.
Brad Herda (:So we have an awesome guest today Mr. Matt Scott a welding instructor at the Portland Community College his welding career began at high school when his metal shop teacher told him to go get a job at this local fab shop down the road shoot him away that path led him to bridge work and his ultimate goal in the piping industry and he's been training and testing welders for over 30 years and finds immense joy in helping his students and share that success with them and
and be able to give and teach. So to have a mentor, have a teacher, have somebody in the welding industry from upon which I've spent many years in my own right, we're blessed to have Mr. Matt Scott with us today.
Steve Doyle (:Welcome, Matt.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Hey, thanks. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Appreciate you allowing me to jump on.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, anytime, anytime. Yeah, so before we before we jump into that, Matt, I usually always forget this, but which generation? Do you best fit in with or identify with?
Brad Herda (:Absolutely. I can't wait to hear some of your stories.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:So I gotta tell you, you know, the whole generation thing, man, I thought to myself, you know, I'm gonna do a little research. You know, I know I was born in 1966, but I thought to myself, I was raised by a mother and father that were hardworking and they were just about getting her done. So if I was to say I was in a generation, I would call it the GRD generation, getting her done generation, because that's how I was raised.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah!
Brad Herda (:I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:And it was the firm hug or the firm hand that when you got your chores done or not. But no, it's, you know, I'm a Gen Xer, you know, right there just at the beginning of it. I was the typical latchkey kid. My folks ended up getting divorced. So I was on my own walking to school. It was uphill both ways, by the way. It was only a half mile, but I'm going to tell you it's 10 miles because it was, you know, my feet were smaller.
Steve Doyle (:Right? No, we're not.
Steve Doyle (:Hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Both ways. Yeah.
Brad Herda (:Absolutely.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Right? But yeah, you know, that's where I guess I identify with, you know, but really it's a part of it's being raised by folks that came up through the Great Depression and, you know, the baby boomers and the work ethic that they had to establish to kind of grit and grind through it, definitely transferred to me and my other five other siblings.
Steve Doyle (:You
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:And we're just grinders, you know, we're just gonna, we're gonna get her done. You know, what is that Jason Aldean song? You know, we're gonna work till we get it done. And that's kind of where we're at. But anyhow, I could go on, but yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Brad Herda (:You could so so alright, so let's contrast that to your current position. So we'll get to the history of that, but you're now teaching. You're now teaching at Portland Community College where you're teaching probably mostly Gen Z's possibly some millennials or maybe some some maybe some extras that are trying to rescale relearn re re certify those types of things. How have you seen or what are you seeing from the character?
Steve Doyle (:Right?
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Thank you.
Brad Herda (:characteristic differences within those generations that you've been teaching for the last few years or so.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Wow. You know, I think if I could... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I'm gonna answer it this way. The pandemic has wiped it clean. You know, before pandemic, you had those students that were hungry and wanting to get after it. There are some that were there like testing the waters, is welding, welding fabrication for me? But once we opened after the pandemic...
Brad Herda (:You didn't know this was gonna be like 60 minutes, did you?
Steve Doyle (:You know what I'm
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:We came back to a brand new shop. I don't know the gods of whatever, right? We had a remodel in our shop. So now I walk into our shop and it's a six million dollar beautiful facility. And the students that have come back are just hungry. They just want to be there. So I teach the morning with a colleague of mine, Dave Williams.
Brad Herda (:Awesome. That's great.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:as well as Zach Tuttle. And we have an influx, like 50 % of our class is recently graduated high school students and they are hungry. And, you know, we had a, speaking of weather at the beginning of the show, we're talking about weather, right? Well, we had a little week here in Portland, Oregon, and we had some snow shut down. So we lost a week. So we're like, hey, we open from seven to noon, but we're going to open at 630.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:If you guys want to jump in and make up that time, we're here. And they're coming in and they're hungry. And they're like not letting us get away. They're grabbing us, getting us to the booth, asking amazing questions, wanting details. And there's a synergy there that's happening that is just fun to see. And it's given me issues in my life because here I am.
I'm 30 years in the saddle at Portland Community College. I'm ready to retire, but I'm not. I got a brand new shop to work in. These students are amazing. And you know, one antidote is that we had at Portland Community College, we've got a lot of services that makes us, I think, a super cool college. But our job placement specialist came in and she was doing her song and dance up there. And she's like, well, you know, who's used my services? And I had one kid raise his hand. I mean, this is he just graduated from high school the year before.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Brad Herda (:Thanks.
Steve Doyle (:you
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:And he was like, oh, oh yeah, I did. I went to that career fair. And then, oh, by the way, I met Frank Manning at the career fair, who is the president of Diversified Marine. And, oh, by the way, I worked for him as a welder last summer. And, oh yeah, I made $15 ,000 and I'm barely 19. Oh, by the way, 15K and I'm barely 19. And he's welding up master butts where, you know, that's the ship goes part. It's not.
Brad Herda (:by the way.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:be very fun, right? So he had the skill and when I had him in class, you know, he's doing amazing work and all of that time and that effort that he put in is just ROI. It's ROI baby and man, he got it in the pocket and now he's, you know, gonna be graduating and if you follow me on Instagram, you might see a post of him and a quote, should I walk or not? Because he just had the conversation.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:with me about his mom saying, you're gonna walk graduation, right? And he's like, I don't know. So we're gonna let the public decide. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Oh, the answer is.
Brad Herda (:The answer is yes. The answer is yes. One thousand yes. That doesn't mean you have to stay for the whole thing. So my college graduation, I actually got home before my guests got home because I went across the stage and walked straight out, got in my car and came home. And everybody's like, why are you home already? I'm like, because you wanted me to see me walk and I walked and I came home afterwards. And they're like, we stayed for the whole thing. I said, that's not my fault.
Steve Doyle (:Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Nice.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yeah. Brad, I'm going let them watch this for sure then, because I'll give them the idea to cut out early. But no. It's just such a landmark. It's just so thrilling to see these kids work so hard and do so well. And they're getting jobs. And they're getting good jobs.
Steve Doyle (:Ha ha ha ha ha!
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Brad Herda (:Thank you.
Steve Doyle (:Right, so. So what is the age group that we're talking about for these these kids right now? Are we really truly talking about our Gen Z's? You know the early 20s.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yeah, I would say, you know, we're looking from 18 to probably 30 years old, somewhere in there, is the bulk of my students in, yeah, yeah, in the morning. Demographics changed a little bit because we have an afternoon and an evening, you know, but crazy enough, we will have...
Steve Doyle (:Okay. Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Brad Herda (:So that's the younger millennial and the older Gen Zs. Yep.
Steve Doyle (:Okay.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:we will have kind of, uh, I want to say professionals, but you know, I consider welders professionals too, but you know, we have doctors and lawyers come in, right? Yeah. Um, in this last year we had, uh, a doc, a local doc come in and, uh, he's ready to retire. And I'm like, gosh, man, you look familiar. This is my mind. I was just kind of spinning. I'm like, I know you, you're looking familiar. Um, and,
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Brad Herda (:percent.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:You did my colonoscopy, didn't you?
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:No, that was the other one. I got another story on that one. But anyhow, I'm looking at this guy and kind of come to find out, you know, he was our, my wife and my best friend's doc and he was a cancer surgeon. So we went to one meeting, one appointment with our friend to support her. And I'm just like, but he came in and you know, lapper.
Steve Doyle (:I'm sorry.
you
Brad Herda (:Tig
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Right?
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:He was like the amazing welder. I'm just like, dude. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, in his retirement, he bought the farm and he was out the other side of, uh, Mount hood and he, and he bought a farm. He had a shop and he's like, I just want to learn, use tools. And you know, he grew up in Montana. So, um, you know, he, yeah, he knew all about the farming and all that, but anyhow, yeah. So.
Steve Doyle (:Oh yeah.
Steve Doyle (:So yeah, the reason for asking is you're talking about how hungry your students are. And there's a, whether it's a misconception or it's a perception that certain generations aren't hungry and they're, well, just say it now, they're lazy. So when it's actually refreshing to hear that you actually have quote unquote,
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Mm -hmm. Mm
Steve Doyle (:hungry students that are actually wanting to learn and how to better themselves. And that's amazing. Yeah.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I spent a lot of years coaching youth sports. And I'll say this, but don't take it negatively because I mean it in the positive way. I'm a button pusher. I am looking for the button to push on you, to encourage you to get to that.
Brad Herda (:Oh, Matt's such an asshole. God damn it, I can't. I don't want to go to practice, Mom. I don't want to go to practice, Mom. He's an ass.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:level right and it that that yeah but but but that button is so different so for so many people and you know I just that's what that's kind of how I approach my class it's like man I am here I'm gonna give it all to you and guess what you've got two other instructors on the floor ready to do the same and there's this synergy amongst
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:us that kind of just like flows over bleeds over whatever you want to call it to our group and they're just hungry and there's a lot of times if you know can I dare say my Instagram account you know if you follow them yeah if you want to follow me PCC Welding RC or on LinkedIn where I met Brad you know I try to post up and that's the other thing I try to do is I'm trying to highlight these students.
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Brad Herda (:Whatever you want, man.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:and what was super cool.
Steve Doyle (:you
Brad Herda (:job of that Matt. Oh by the way, just so you know, when I see those posts, I see those things, I see kids doing things that they don't necessarily feel like doing or most people don't think kids can do those things. I used to mentor first robotics for a bunch of years at the high school level and we had an amazing one of our mentors was just a fantastic dude, worked for GE Medical, was their maintenance guy, but was just patient as all get out great teacher. So we're teaching aluminum welding.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Oh, yeah.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:Not always the easiest thing to do but teaching some thin gauge aluminum welding one of our kids took some 16th Butt joint weld together. He's 14 15 years old or whatever. This thing's gorgeous He's going he wants to take a hammer and beat the shit out of it. I'm like, no, no, no, no Don't do that. Don't do that with this one You can do with some other ones But this one is like perfect because if he wants like if you want to go to someplace in the summer and go get a job or go Whatever and you're gonna say I can weld they're gonna laugh you out But as soon as you put that down you go, I just did this
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yep.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:That test coupon you have in front of you is, is your calling card to get the conversation to go.
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Brad Herda (:is real. And you promoting your students in the way you do and what you're showing out there is phenomenal. So thank you for doing that.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Thank you.
Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, but it's pretty easy in the sense too, because like, you know, we just had this gal, single mom, lived a mile or two from Rock Creek campus at Portland Community College. We have three locations. Rock Creek is kind of like the center, which is the largest shop. We have a shop in Scapoose, Oregon, which is Oregon Manufacturers Innovation Center with Portland Community College. And then we have...
Brad Herda (:Cool.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:I would call it a shop at ground zero. This our Portland Community College shipyard shop is actually within the shipyard for vigor industrial. So we have building 10 there and our maritime we built out a maritime program obviously to go there but because we are multi campus we can teach it anywhere. So I had this gal come in and we kind of tracked her all the way from not knowing welding to
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:But it's
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:getting her certification. And now she works for Vigor Industrial. But the comments I got from Vigor Industrial on LinkedIn, like, I remember Sarah when she came out to our first job fair. It's just kind of like that. That kind of gave me the idea, like, hey, we're going to start once these, you know, if, if, hey, Trent, if you don't walk across the stage, you're not going to get featured on LinkedIn to get that next job. I don't know. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll hold that carrot somehow, right?
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Yep, there you go. There you go. Right?
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:We'll push that button, but anyhow, I don't know. It's amazing because when you start talking about education and how we offer education in America, it's interesting to me because with three of my kids, my son never really liked English. He didn't want to study Shakespeare.
And he was very focused on what he was focused. When he was a baseball player, I would see him make plays where it wouldn't be like, I feel the grounder at third and I'm going to go to first. It's like, I look at first, can't get that. I'm the second, no, I got third. But no, you know, he was just, you could see his mind rapid fire. And, but the school didn't interest him. So when he went off to college and playing baseball and doing a little class, you know,
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:you
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:three years into it, he said, well, you know, it's time to hang up my cleats because in the summer he would come back during his baseball season and he would take welding. So long story short, he took all of that skill that he learned in the summers, welding, and he ended up in the associates in welding, associates in transfer degree. And he now works for Vigor Industrial. He started as a boiler maker. He transferred over as a steam fitter. So he's a journeyman steam fitter.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:Okay.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:Okay.
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:And right now he's managing a multimillion dollar project at 31 as a ship superintendent. And yeah, he's just doing great. And yeah, and the best part about it is he gets to go to work, his wife and my two grandkids, not his kids, my two grandkids. I guess I should say my wife's grandkids too. But you know, Katie gets to stay home with Mason and Wyatt. It's just like, it's kind of like.
Brad Herda (:Very cool. Congratulations.
Steve Doyle (:Nice.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Steve Doyle (:Ha ha ha.
Brad Herda (:you
Steve Doyle (:That's awesome.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Ah, this is nice. And I can borrow money from him now because he makes more than me. But most importantly, he's happy at his job. But you know, the American education system, we got to sculpt it a little more because like my daughter is a third grade teacher in Kansas City, Missouri. And you know, she's doing God's work there teaching third grade and she's loving it and she's thriving and she's the lead teacher now five years in the saddle there.
Brad Herda (:Absolutely.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm. Right.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:but she embraced academics. So I think it's just, it's interesting to have a, you know, we have three kids, but of the two, you know, we got the, I'm going to the trades and obviously we encouraged it. And then my daughter, you know, both my wife and I are teachers as well. So, you know, that was easy, you know, yeah, go do it. Educate the youth of America.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:Thank you.
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Brad Herda (:So, you talked about your son on the baseball diamond, being able to problem solve or look at things and bring things into context. And one of the things we hear all the time from our clients and prospects and just people in general is that, you know, we tell us some today's youth, they don't know what to do next or how to go out or solve problems. Well, they know how to solve problems with their phone because they can YouTube it and find the solution.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:it.
Brad Herda (:They don't necessarily retain the knowledge, but they can solve the problem. It's just different. How are you see? What have you seen change over your decades of teaching experience of that? How to solve a problem? Is there a lot more collaboration? Is it a lot more like you were go get it done and figure it out? And if I make three pieces of scrap, I make three pieces of scrap. What's the what's kind of the trend you're seeing for problem solving with your students today?
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:I think it's teamwork amongst them and problem -solving because we run an open entry open exit program. So I have 20 students and three or four of them might be starting first term and then sprinkled through second third fourth term. So we go stick welding, wire welding, TIG welding, fabrication and pipe. So depending upon where those students are at, they will collaborate with each other.
I think, you know, it's funny because the first 10 years I really struggled as an educator to try to formulate kind of my process, my teaching approach to showing somebody how to build something because I can look at something and I'll be like, okay, I know how I'm going to approach that. And if you take it like a CAD class, it'll be design intent.
Steve Doyle (:Thank you.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:And when I took my class, I'm like, that's fabrication of debt, you know? I'm looking at my drawing. As you'll see, I've got drawings that my sister did back in the 70s. Yes. Yeah, right there. But you take that and you're like, you know, how do I bend this piece of steel so I don't get blocked within the break? And I can't remove it. I got to the cut torch out to remove it, you know, and it's worthless. But I think it's...
Steve Doyle (:Oh yeah, the old blueprints. You know, the OG prints right there.
Brad Herda (:Right.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:the teamwork which we promote. And that's part of the synergy that I'm seeing is that there's some students where I think, I've been doing this like 35 years, I got it. I've explained it perfectly. And the student will be looking at me like, what? And then another student will come up and be like, oh, do this, this and that. And the light goes on. And it's beautiful because I am all about like,
Steve Doyle (:Hahaha!
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:I don't care how you get it, just get it and then build off of that. And, you know, I got to brag about this kid Trent. You know, we're back at the plasma cutter and he's designed out a bumper and he threw a sheet down and he's cutting it on the plasma. And I, you know, he's done with it. The next day I'm over there and showing another student about it. Here comes Trent.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:And he's like, oh yeah, and check this out, check that out. You know, if you hit shift and then arrow that carriage is going to move faster. And I'm like to my students, I said, see, every day I pull up to this thing. If I can learn one more thing on that much further ahead. And you know, I had to go to the back room with Trent then, because he's got his own little Fab Bay now in the back building this bumper. And I'm like, dude, what are you going to do in life? I said, because right there, I just saw a teacher.
Steve Doyle (:you
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:I'm
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:I mean, you need to go get some experience. You need to come back and give back because it was incredible. And that's just kind of the things I see. So when it comes to problem solving, it's like it's all of us. And sometimes we get on the phone. Shh, don't tell anybody. But we will get on the phone and kind of research it. But a lot of what I've done too is I've kind of tried to design my curriculum over 30 years to where it's kind of building.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
I'm sorry.
Brad Herda (:you
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:So if you start at the weld 111 and you work, you're starting to learn all the equipment, you're starting to learn its capabilities, obviously, to use it safely. And then you start figuring out like, oh, I'm not going to use the drill press to drill out 30 holes when I can use the iron marker to punch it in like half the time, or just throw it on the plasma table and cut them off, right? So anyways, yeah. Yes, you, yep.
Steve Doyle (:you
Brad Herda (:depends on your tolerances depends on what's gotta happen. Is it is it as as hold my drilling it and my machining it later? Is it a finished dimension? Is it? TIR what do you have to do in there? You got it right?
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Absolutely, absolutely.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:like oh yeah you can punch it but yeah that's not gonna work out well you've just made scrap but I learned how to use the machine that I couldn't use for the make the part to make it to print
Steve Doyle (:Man.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yeah Yes
Steve Doyle (:Yep. Absolutely.
Steve Doyle (:Right? So Matt, tell us the question that I know some of our audience members have is attracting these students. What is something that PCC is doing to help attract? These students to actually want to be in the trades.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Well, you know, we obviously do the social marketing, social media.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:it's networking as well. You know, this is kind of crazy but my wife teaches at Beaverton High School and she teaches education pathway and she had a couple students come in and do a presentation and they're like, Miss Shelley, does your husband work at Portland Community College? And their presentation was on our integrated education and training program which I call my brother.
Steve Doyle (:All right?
Steve Doyle (:Hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:my colleague, Erya Reyes teaches. And it was just like, oh my God. So, and of course she's just like pounded in like, yeah, you gotta go there. My husband, my husband works there. But you know, that networking started years ago too, because we have, my wife and I's friend, Carrie Matsuo, she works over there as the career placement specialist. And we knew Carrie and her husband, John Matsuo, back when,
Brad Herda (:you
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Yeah.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:when my 31 year old son Tanner was playing little league cause they ran the little league. So we're always pumping it, but probably one of our biggest things that we got going on right now, besides our personalities, um, is, is we have a, yeah, we have a mobile welding trailer that we have put together. So I talked a little bit about our Swan Island vigor, PCC vigor industrial site and
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Brad Herda (:That's worth a lot though.
Steve Doyle (:Hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:My other brother, Todd Barnett, had this idea like, hey, we should get a mobile welder. Because, you know, he's from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. He's like, I want to go give back to my people. And it kind of started there. And one thing led to another. And now we've got a mobile welding trailer. It's painted yellow with PCC. And you got to give a big shout out to Union Pacific because they're a big funder. And Vigor Industrial was very, very involved in it.
the trailer and that's outfitted with six welding booths and we can teach all of our welding processes in there. Well, we got to get it to site. So we're hauling it around with a tractor that truck that was purchased through our FRO future ready Oregon grant money from the state. So we're taking this out. It's brand new. We've piloted it now, beta tested it at Ohmic. We've taken it out to Liberty High for two weeks and
Brad Herda (:you
Steve Doyle (:That's all.
Steve Doyle (:Hmm?
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:It's funny networking. Another one of my brothers, Ken Madden with Madden Industrial Craftsman, met him. Yeah, I met Ken on a canned food drive where both our kids were Cub Scouts and we're walking the streets and he's like, what? You're welding? What? You're Madden? But they're they're so excited now. They're wanting to, you know, go welding trailer 2 .0. I hear.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah
Brad Herda (:You're in Oregon, not Utah, right?
Steve Doyle (:Hahaha!
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:So, you know, so the word's getting out and a lot of it's social media and you know, they kind of, our administrative staff these last couple years had said, well, then you have an idea. Run, go do. What do we need to get things out of your way? And they literally moved. I mean, because when we wrote our maritime curriculum, we were kind of in a, we had a major management philosophical change at school.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:And we're just like, we're going to put everything on hold just so that we can get this under control and go. But our bosses went, no, they got this idea, industry support, and we really need to move on. And we did, and we got it done in a year. And now we're off in maritime classes, which by the way, those maritime courses for a career pathway can be offered in our trailer, mobile trailer as well. So it's just kind of, we had this magic moment here in education where we had time, money, more money.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:We had administrative support and industry was like, this is what we want. Can you guys get it done? And what can we do to help? And it was us like, you know, between Vigor, Industrial, Matt & Industrial, Craftsman, we had Diversified Marine, you know, just those three, not to mention all the other companies around, right? Kind of feel bad for leaving them out, but there's just so many, there's like, yeah, we need welders. And the American Welding Society is like,
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yeah, we need welders. We need 360 ,000 welders between now and 2027.
Steve Doyle (:Yep. Yep.
Brad Herda (:Right, and you're doing 30, and you got 30 at a time.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yeah, yeah.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yeah, yeah, but you know, really we are probably training 150 to 200 welders at Portland Community College among our three sites and we got multiple shifts and we train for different departments for the diesel. That's why I had to schedule out this one because I was teaching a diesel welding class, which is an introductory welding class for our diesel students, but we got aviation, we got auto collision. I don't want to retire you guys.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:No, why? You're having fun.
Steve Doyle (:Why? It's fun.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:I was so thrilled. A couple years ago, I got eye surgery. I got my eyes straightened out. I was like, I almost, when my surgeon came in to give me the review, like, hey, your thumbs up, I almost jumped up and gave her a hug and kissed it. Thank you for extending my career for another 20 years. I mean, man.
Steve Doyle (:All right. Mm -hmm.
Brad Herda (:So so Matt if other educators listening to this or industry experts that that want to Engage your network to understand what you guys have done and how you did it and what it took to get some of those things done How do people find you connect with you? Get in contact to be able to learn more about what success looks like from you guys and how to do it for themselves
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Oh my gosh, on LinkedIn.
Brad Herda (:besides Instagram.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Yeah, on LinkedIn, I am Matt Scott, CWICWE. My email, mscott .pcc .edu. That is mscott .pcc .edu. Yeah, shoot me an email and get a hold of me. You know, it's funny you say that because literally last Monday, I was just on a Zoom call for a school, Bergen Tech in New Jersey.
Brad Herda (:EDU.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:They're setting up a weld shop. So I'm really excited to see what's happening with the youth, seeing how the resurgence of metal shop, shop in general, whether it's woods, drafting and whatnot, they're coming back. It's coming back. And I'm really, really excited about that. And I want to promote it. I'm a product of the metal shop, West High Anchorage, Alaska.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Bob Ruth ran a tight ship and man, we learned a lot. And you know, he kicked me out of class. So I'd go to work for Bob Services Incorporated. And that got me started, you know? It's like I needed to. He's like, yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Brad Herda (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, that's awesome.
Brad Herda (:That's spectacular. So Matt, thank you so much for your time today and sharing and doing what you're doing for today's youth, for tomorrow's employees along the way and employers so that we can continue to build a strong infrastructure internally here stateside and keep that skill and talent here versus going where we don't need to go to go get stuff done. So get her done is coming back. So thank you for doing that.
Steve Doyle (:get her done.
Matt Scott - PCC Welding (:Get it in. I like it. I like it a lot. Well, hey, thanks for having me, gentlemen. Appreciate it.
Brad Herda (:All right. Have a great day. Thanks.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, thanks, Matt.