Welding offers options to Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center students

For students at the Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center, welding was an opportunity to learn a trade in a high-paying field with a variety of professional options.

“There are so many jobs and opportunities,” said Dylan Eckman, a Burrell High School senior who trains at Northern Westmoreland. “I couldn’t pass it up.”

Eckman, Burrell senior Heather Shultz and Franklin Regional senior Chase Kelsey took first place this month at a Skills USA District 8 welding competition. The three will move on to represent Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center at the state competition March 9 and 10.

For the competition, the team was given a blueprint for a small hopper. They had three hours to cut parts, assemble it and weld it together. The team able to best follow the blueprint and show the most quality craftsmanship won.

George Kirk, director of the school’s welding program, said this is the second year in a row his students have placed in the competition. As an instructor, it’s rewarding to see their hard work pay off, he said.

“Ultimately, it just comes down to the kids themselves, and it shows in their outcomes,” Kirk said. “Their work ethic, the commitment they have and just the quality of the work they put forth, it’s just so nice to see them get recognized.”

For Shultz, it was important to find a career field that allowed her to stay in Western Pennsylvania, and she likes the idea of learning a trade as she pursues her education.

“It’s nice to have that to fall back on,” Shultz said. “And these competitions that we go to and these wins we have look good on a resume.”

Shultz loves hands-on work, she said, and there were many options of career fields in welding such as engineering, inspecting and nondestructive testing.

“I just saw so many different avenues I could go,” Schultz said. “I’m happy that I have this in my background, because I feel like it will take me so much further in my future career.”

Eckman said he wanted to find a trade that allowed him to be independent. Both he and Schultz work after school at a welding shop, making roughly $18 an hour. Combining their time at Northern Westmoreland CTC and the shop, the two spend nearly 50 hours a week welding.

“It just inspired me to be a different kind of person,” Eckman said. “And the welding career is huge. There’s just so much stuff with it you wouldn’t even think. There are just a lot of opportunities.”

Schultz and Eckman were also part of a team that won first place at a competition held by the American Welding Society in December. They competed in a variety of welding challenges and competing against students in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

Schultz was recently accepted to Penn State New Kensington with plans to study electro-mechanical engineering.

Eckman hopes to train in underwater welding in North Carolina.

The team has already received the project blueprint for the state Skills USA competition, and they are practicing.