Welding is growing in popularity.
And when young people, particularly high school students, hear that welders in the Pittsburgh area are making hourly salaries in the mid to upper $20s, now they’re really all ears.
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT—STUDENTS NASIR ALLEN, TRACE BROWN, DONTRELL BROCK, RONDAL GILMORE, DERICO RAINEY, DIOR GATEWOOD, BLACK RISTICH, LANAEJAH DARWIN. THEY WERE PART OF THE IAW WELD SCHOLARS SPRING 2025 COHORT.
Welding, according to Indeed.com, is a construction activity generally used for joining materials together through the application of heat. Welders use heat, gas and complex machinery to join metal and other substances together or repair and fill holes on metal construction.
The welding trade was introduced this spring to students from five schools: Passport Academy, Urban Pathways 6-12, City Charter High Charter School, Steel Valley and Propel Schools.
Students would report to their respective schools, and then on a weekly basis, be bused to the IAW (Industrial Arts Workshop) in Hazelwood, and receive hands-on instruction about welding.
Those students received their graduation certificates in April.
NASIR ALLEN EXPLAINING HIS PIECE OF ART.
“It’s basically teaching art but you’re doing it through the medium of welding and manufacturing skills,” said Joe Oliphant, principal at Passport Academy, Downtown. “That’s a total career-readiness skill, preparing kids when they leave school. The staff there are terrific, bonded with the kids and helped them learn new things.”
Oliphant said that during the IAW welding graduation ceremony for Passport, City Charter and Urban Pathways students, April 11, all the Passport Academy teachers attended the ceremony in Hazelwood.
“We’re going to go out and support our kids,” Oliphant told the New Pittsburgh Courier.
LANAEJAH DARWIN GETTING HER CERTIFICATE FROM TIM KAULEN, IAW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)
One doesn’t need a college degree to become a welder. And that’s where a lot of today’s new generation of young folks are headed.
“There’s so many opportunities now, especially in this region, in manufacturing,” Oliphant said.
Data from the Pew Research Center found that young adult males aren’t choosing four-year colleges like they used to. In 2011, 47 percent of men ages 18-24 were in a four-year college. By 2022, that number had dipped to 39 percent.
RONDAL GILMORE AND DERICO RAINEY SHOW THEIR ARTWORK.
Not surprisingly, more young men and women are choosing to learn a specialized trade in the last five to 10 years and forgo college—and its increasing cost.
“It’s a good opportunity for kids right now,” Oliphant said.
DIOR GATEWOOD
