ENGAGING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WELDERS
Skilled trade jobs aren’t easy to fill. Just ask the Association for Career and Technical Education. The group estimates nearly 1.1 million jobs in the trade, transportation, utility, and manufacturing sectors are open and unfilled. That’s just in the United States. Positions are available, but companies can’t find anyone qualified enough to do the work.
Tackling this problem—only expected to get worse as baby boomers retire—is complex. There is no one solution. Some companies, like Hypertherm, are opening their own schools. Others are partnering with high schools or vocational schools. But no matter the approach, one of the first steps is getting people interested in career and technical education. One could argue there is a strong social incentive. A study of high school dropouts commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found more than 80 percent felt relevant, real-world learning opportunities would have kept them in high school. Additional studies by the U.S. Department of Education reinforce the benefits of career and technical education. Students involved with career and technical education performed better and graduated at higher rates than their peers. The average high school graduation rate for students concentrating in career and technical education programs is 90 percent.
Getting students engaged with career and technical education is one thing. Making sure students are learning the needed skills is another. When it came to teaching plasma cutting to students, Hypertherm found there was no consistent approach. At some schools, teachers had experience using plasma, but just as often, teachers did not. Michael Pike, an instructor at White Mountains Community College in New Hampshire, found himself in that second group. Though he had decades of experience as a welder, plasma cutting was never part of his formal education.
Concerned, Hypertherm contacted instructors at well-known vocational and trade schools hoping to enlist their help in creating a plasma cutting curriculum. After months of collaboration between a core group of educators and Hypertherm training specialists, Plasma Cutting Technology: Theory and Practice was born. For the first time teachers had access to about 10 hours of instruction explaining how plasma worked, its importance to anyone wanting to be a welder, and instruction on how to cut with plasma. A mix of reading, hands-on classroom exercises, seminar instruction, and lab activity time was included to accommodate students with a range of learning styles.
The American Welding Society was so impressed with the thoroughness of the curriculum; it awarded its SENSE designation to let teachers know the curriculum met a comprehensive set of minimum standards and guidelines for welding education programs. The SENSE designation would also make it easier for teachers to get government funding for their programs, allowing them to reach more students, and provide a common benchmark for measuring the abilities of students graduating from different programs.
Teachers who use the curriculum like it. Phillip McNew, a certified welding educator and inspector from Pittsburg State University who advised Hypertherm, describes it as “a turn-key teaching tool.” He explains, “Instructors can teach with little preparation and will appreciate the multi-media format. Students will enjoy the interactive lab / lecture approach and attention to today’s technologies.”
Joel Johnson, an associate professor at North Dakota State, agrees, “I like the curriculum kit because students learn what the consumables do, how they go into the torch, and where to look up cut charts so they load the right consumables—all before they put their hands on a live torch. This saves countless dollars on consumables, metal, system downtime, and repairs. And the curriculum is easy to teach and easy to use.”
As for actually getting the curriculum, teachers have a couple of different options. In an effort to help the greatest number of schools, Hypertherm has made the entire 10 hour curriculum—10 lessons in all—available for free download. Learn more. Teachers can download electronic versions of all the lessons, along with a facilitator’s guide and student workbook at www.plasmaeducation.com.
The second option is to buy the full kit which would include a bound and professionally printed facilitator’s guide and student workbook, hands-on teaching tools including mock torches and consumable stacks, a resource CD with all lessons and additional reading materials, and an eLearning CD. The kit is available through most Hypertherm authorized channel partners and Amazon.com.
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