WACTC to open welding center
HOUSTON – In about six months, Western Area Career and Technology Center will open a new welding shop building that will help the school and the area meet a burgeoning demand for welders that began several years ago and shows no signs of letting up.
During groundbreaking ceremonies for public officials Tuesday morning – participants were handed gold welding masks in place of traditional hard hats – Dr. Joe Iannetti outlined plans for a new 11,500-square-foot building that will train students in welding, fabrication and machining for the center’s manufacturing cluster.
The $1.5 million facility, expected to open before year’s end, is being funded by $500,000 in Local Share Account money provided by gaming proceeds from The Meadows Racetrack & Casino, as well as $1 million from WACTC.
“This facility is being built with local funds and will serve local students and industry,” Iannetti told about 40 local officials. Nello Construction of Houston is construction manager for the project, which is being built directly behind the main classroom complex.
Iannetti said later that the facility, which will be built as “a totally open” structure, will house 46 welding booths, but leave about half the space open for instruction in pipe welding.
“We’re turning away welding students” because the current classroom configuration at WACTC can’t add any more, Iannetti said.
He said 63 students graduated from the welding program in the spring, and the school capped its welding program for the incoming fall class at 60 students.
The project arrives at a time of soaring demand for welders in the region, primarily from the natural gas industry, but from manufacturing and other industries as well.
On Monday, Dallas-based Rockford Corp., said it is establishing a temporary site in Donegal Township that will employ 400 welders for about a year on a 50-mile pipeline project to be built between Moundsville, W.Va., and Houston. The company said it plans to hire at least half of the workforce locally.
Last month, Ken Broadbent, business manager for Steamfitters Local Union 449, told members of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce he hoped more local men and women would consider a career in welding because of the constant demand coming from drilling companies and their suppliers working in the Marcellus Shale.
“It’s all about jobs,” Broadbent said.
Iannetti echoed that comment in his remarks Tuesday.
“We have 18-year-olds (WACTC graduates) in positions where they’re making $80,000 a year,” Iannetti said, noting that the school recently placed 13 of its new graduates with employers in one day.
County commission Chairman Larry Maggi said that while higher education is still an important goal for some high school students to pursue, “WACTC is a hidden gem, especially when we’re trying to supply a skilled workforce for what’s going on here.”
Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan noted that the school is a valuable asset, especially when commissioners talk with companies considering bringing operations to the county.
Commissioner Harlan Shober, who noted that he became involved with WACTC 30 years ago as a member of the Chartiers-Houston School Board, praised Iannetti for being able to foresee the need for training in different areas as the natural gas extraction industry began to emerge here several years ago.
In addition to welding, Shober noted that Iannetti was instrumental in creating a truck-driving school for people to earn a commercial drivers license and another program that trains diesel engine mechanics.
“They’re always one step ahead of everybody else,” Shober said.