Skip to main content

Young welders get an elbow up during Boilermakers competition

Date Posted: May 30 2008

Anticipated power plant construction, as well as maintenance and expansion of existing boilers around Michigan, is expected to bring about a boom in the need for welders during the next decade.

Enter the annual Boilermakers Local 169 "High School Welding Invitational," a competition that took place this year on May 2 at the local's Training Center in Dearborn. The competition brought in 60 high schoolers from 14 schools statewide, allowing them to learn who the boilermakers are and what they do, display their welding skills, and perhaps get a leg up when it comes time to get hired.

This is the sixth year that Tony Najor, an instructor from the Lapeer County Education Technical Center, has brought his students to the boilermakers competition.

"I like everything they do here," he said. "What they're offering is employment, and it offers a great opportunity for our kids. I wish more places offered these kinds of opportunities."

Najor and other instructors said the Boilermakers' program offers a career path that veers from the traditional course suggested by high school counselors and curricula - that is, getting a college degree. "Half the students we have aren't going to college," said Michael Schmidt, an instructor with the Mecosta-Oceola Intermediate Career Center. "This gives them something to work toward."

The students were reminded that they would be drug- and alcohol-tested, the job can involve extensive traveling, and that their skills and work ethic would determine whether they could stay in a career as a boilermaker.

Boilermakers Local 169 Business Manager Tony Jacobs said in the next five to six years, he anticipates that the local will draw about one-third of its workforce from vocational education schools.

"We are busy and we are going to be busy," he told the group of assembled students. "Your teachers have done a great job of teaching you welding. We offer a career, but it's not a kid's game. We have to keep owners and contractors happy by getting jobs done right, on time and on budget."

The students displayed their welding skills and had their work judged to give them an idea of how they can improve their skill. They also took a written test to show their knowledge.

Chris Lanzon, president of Detroit Boiler Co., told the students that entry into the Boilermakers apprenticeship program "is one of the best opportunities you can be given in the building trades. There are situations in the country where employers don't know where they're going to find people to do their work."

BOILERMAKERS LOCAL 169'S Rob Theisen, right, talks to high schooler Demarco Hunt after he put down his "welding elbow" during the Local 169 High School Welding Invitational. Theisen won the first annual Local 169 Invitational. He also competed in the Great Lakes Area Boilermaker Apprentice of the Year Competition earlier this month, and will find out how he placed on June 11.