A graduation ceremony was held recently for individuals participating in a welding training program. It’s part of an effort by regional manufacturers, educators and the North Country Chamber of Commerce to make sure workforce needs are being met.
“It is directly touching the lives of people and their future ability to have meaningful, fulfilling careers. And there’s nothing more important than that.”
North Country Chamber President and CEO Garry Douglas speaking there at the third graduation ceremony of the Clinton Community College Welding Academy. The intensive three-week program is conducted by professional welders and includes welding types, safety fundamentals and blueprint reading.
Lincoln Electric Weld Process Consultant Padraic Bean is one of the instructors.
“In two weeks we had a number of students go from having zero welding experience to passing code quality weld tests. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years in a mix of environments and in 20 years I’ve never seen groups of welders make the type of progress that these welders have made," Bean said. "It’s truly amazing and it shows just a huge amount of dedication. They’ve all been self-starters, very, very hungry to learn, very hungry to get into the workforce, very appreciative of the opportunity they’ve been given.”
The training program started when a manufacturer told the Chamber an upcoming contract would need a large number of welders. Chamber Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Joel Wood explained that the Chamber obtained grants to create and fund the program.
“In 2019 we received a call from one of our member companies. At the time they told us we have a very large contract coming down the pipeline," explained Wood. "We’ve done this contract before. This contract required a lot of welders. Last time they struggled and they said we want to get ahead of the curve. So by 2024 or 2025 time frame we’re going to need 50 skilled welders for this contract. And what we were able to do is identify a variety of funding sources through the federal government, through the Northern Border Regional Commission, as well as Empire State Development to put together a training program completely free of cost. The students do not pay a penny to get a base level understanding and skills in welding. So that way they can go to work at Alstom or one of the other local manufacturers.”
Northern Border Regional Commission Regional Co-Chair Chris Saunders says the training is an innovative regional economic development effort.
“We know that it’s not enough to simply do what we did 20 years ago. You need to be offering training that is really relevant to the jobs that are available now. You need to be thinking about the types of other supports that are going to help students complete programs. And you need to have a network of employers that are ready and able and willing to step in and participate and have available jobs," Saunders said. "These elements are certainly represented here at the welding academy. The federal government has invested public money in this project and we are seeing residents of the North Country get trained for jobs.”
The latest New York state budget includes funding to continue the welding academy. Wood says $100,000 was secured for the program by Rochester Democratic state Senator Jeremy Cooney.
“He knows about our welding training program. He’s the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee for New York state. And he said I have some funding for you if you can replicate what you’re doing in our region. So what we’re doing now is working with the Rochester Chamber of Commerce to help them get a similar training program off the ground in their region to be able to help their manufacturers. So we are going to be able to continue this training into 2025. With the $100,000 we think we’re going to be able to do another 24 students," Wood said. "We’re going to be reaching out to our local manufacturers to do some more supply donations. We’ll be looking to some organizations in our community to help a little bit more with the funding to be able to train 24 more students.”
The welding academy has graduated 36 students with a goal of 50. The next class begins on Sept 30th.
