Welders join metals together using high heat. It’s a highly skilled trade, and they make good money. But there’s a dearth of welders coming into the job market in the U.P., as well as nationwide.
The welding workforce is aging; more and more are retiring. And the generation coming up was discouraged from going into the trades, as parents and schools alike became laser-focused on the need to get a college degree.
Now people are becoming aware that trades like welding are a viable alternative to college.
"I think a lot of people are realizing that you can make a really good living off of a high school education through the trades,” said Justin Eugate, Delta Schoolcraft Intermediate School District (DSISD) welding and fabrication instructor.
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Courtesy of Trent BallingarThe new Daniel J. Kobasic Welding Center building.With a $500,000 gift from the Daniel J. Kobasic Foundation and federal funding, the DSISD’s Career and Technical Education Center (CTE) is addressing the need for more welders. The district opened a new state-of-the-art welding education facility named for its benefactor. With U.S. Sen. Gary Peters’ help, the center also received $1.4 million in federal funds.
Ed Legault, executive director of the Delta County Economic Development Alliance, says the Daniel J. Kobasic Memorial Welding Center could help breathe new life into the area’s economy by attracting more businesses.
"The businesses will come if they know that the skilled workforce they need is here, and new businesses mean more and better-paying jobs, which in turn will attract new residents and keep young people here,” he explained.
Who was Daniel J. Kobasic
Daniel J. Kobasic founded Basic Marine, a maritime construction business in Escanaba. He was a self-made entrepreneur who worked as a carpenter, machinist, landscaper, fisherman, ship builder and tugboat captain, as well as a ship builder. He also served in the Merchant Marine.
Kobasic loved everything about maritime life. “Captaining his tugs and working on the water was his first passion,” said Todd LaFave, chief financial officer at the Daniel J. Kobasic Foundation.
Shipyards are dependent on skilled trades, especially fitters and welders. Kobasic himself was a skilled welder. At the grand opening of the new welding center, his daughter, Daniza Stanciu, called welding "magic."
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Courtesy of Anderson Funeral HomeDaniel Kobasic“I believe my father thought that welding was magic, too,” she said.
Not only was welding a key process at his shipyard, but in every house her father ever owned, he had a shop in the garage with a welding station, she recalled.
She drew laughter when she concluded: “When you leave this class, you should be able to weld anything from a broken heart to the crack of dawn.”
Importance of welding education
Welding education and the trades in general have taken a back seat to college prep tracks in most high schools over the past several decades. The Daniel J. Kobasic Foundation decided to back the new welding center to help change that.
“Supporting a welding education center exposes young people to a skilled trade that offers an excellent financial future and feeds the industries critical to the U.P.'s success, especially the success of the marine industry in general and shipbuilding and ship repair in particular,” LaFave explained.
Until the new welding center opened this spring, DSISD rented space for its welding program from Escanaba High School. That meant that students had to travel from their classrooms to the welding lab. Now they will be able to do all their work in the same facility.
The new lab is much bigger and better equipped, with 22 welding booths and a new ventilation system. The old lab only had 11 welding booths.
"That means students can double their arc time, their practice time, instead of having to share,” CTE Principal Trent Bellingar said. “Now, we can do multiple processes at one time instead of having to change machines. We’ll have dedicated TIG (tungsten inert gas) booths; we’ll have dedicated arc welding booths and flux-core booths, so they can do all of them.”
There’s also a new, more environmentally friendly ventilation system that cleans and returns the air to the shop.
"Now we can dispose of those fumes properly, rather than just spew them out in the air,” Bellingar said. “It’s nice to be able to help the community have better air quality.”
Retired DSISD Superintendent Doug Leisenring credits Bellingar’s persistence with moving the new welding center from a dream to a reality.
“Trent has always had this vision of creating a manufacturing hub,” he said.
The new center is such a hub. The welding shop is surrounded by a machine shop and a product design and development room.
“Now the kids can see parts right through from design to actual creation,” Leisenring explained. “So, people can bring us a problem, and the students can design the solution, and using machining and welding, they work together to actually fabricate that solution. It’s like what happens in the real world.”
DSISD welding students will graduate high school with American Welding Society certification, prepared to move into apprenticeship positions, which Bellingar says start at upwards of $25 an hour. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, welders in the United States earn a median annual salary of $48,940. An entry-level welder in Michigan typically earns between $19.40 and $25.96 per hour, or around $40,000 to $54,000 annually.
The American Welding Society predicts that nationwide, there will be an average of 80,000 welding jobs that need to be filled annually between 2025 and 2029.
Gavin Schwalbach graduated from the DSISD welding program in 2018. He now works as a welder at industrial plant outages.
“I wanted to get into welding because I like to work with my hands. I knew that I didn’t want to go college after high school, so I figured welding would be a good option with high pay rates to try,” he said.
Schwalbach wishes he could have trained in the new welding center, but even with its smaller lab, he says the DSISD welding program prepared him well. “I took a weld test on a job 6 months out of high school and passed without going to any other training besides what I got in the welding program,” he recalled.
From a business’s perspective
Many local businesses partner with the DSISD’s Career and Technical Education Center. One of them is VanAire Inc.
Based in Gladstone, VanAire manufactures valve automation hardware and dissolved air flotation waste-water systems. The company supports the CTE by offering students scholarships, interview coaching and jobs. VanAire has employed more than 50 students, some after graduation and others while still attending CTE classes.
“The CTE programs are a great way for local students to find local employment, said Jodi Possi, VanAire’s human resources and safety director. “The students find good jobs, and employers find hard- working Yoopers with skills and experience in welding, machining, automotive, carpentry and product design.”
Possi is particularly impressed with CTE’s welding program. “The welding program stands out because of the quality of welders it produces,” he said. “The program is more than learning how to weld. Students learn teamwork, problem-solving, how to produce quality parts and follow safe work practices with Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance. VanAire has a great appreciation for the CTE programs and the students they train to jump into the local workforce.”
Leisenring, who was DSISD superintendent during the planning and construction of the welding center, can’t express enough appreciation to the Kobasic Foundation and Sen. Peters. “Without their two generous donations, it probably wouldn't have happened,” he said.
Jennifer Donovan is a reporter with more than 40 years of experience on daily newspapers, magazines and university writing and editing. She is retired as director of news and media relations at Michigan Technological University and lives in Houghton.