“Let’s Build America”

ROCKINGHAM — Western Welding Academy’s 2024 Blue Collar Tour stopped by Richmond Senior High School on Monday to share information and showcase the value of a trade education.

“We’re at a large deficit in the nation right now,” shared WWA Creative Director Beau Barkley. “The older guys are retiring and we don’t have enough younger people to come in and fill those gaps.”

For the fourth year in a row, the Blue Collar Tour travels around the country to 31 different high schools over two months to show how a trade education can be a worthwhile investment. This was their only stop in North Carolina.

Welding, carpentry, HVAC and construction career opportunity information was shared with about the 50 students in attendance Monday morning. Among the many facts shared with students was that the average age of a blue-collage worker is 56-years-old.

Barkley said that while a lot of people say that “kids just don’t want to work these days,” their interactions with the youth have proved that notion wrong.

“We see it everyday — Kids do know how to work and they want to work,” Barkley said. “They’re just not inspired to do it and people don’t know how to communicate with them.”

Through an active social media presence and engaging demonstrations such as the one on Monday, WWA is spreading a message that is often missing for young people.

“College has been pushed for the last 30 years; AI has taken over a lot of jobs,” Barkley said. “Those kids that maybe struggle in class, they get a spark from a welding class or construction class. You can read about it all day, watch videos about it all day — Until you get you’re actually hands on it, then you can experience it and say ‘Hey, maybe this is a thing for me.’”

Senior Giovanni Armenta said welding is his favorite class at RSHS and he wants to pursue a career in the field.

“It’s hands-on,” he said. “You don’t just sit there and watch someone talk all day. You actually do it.”

Senior Braxton Jenks shared the same sentiment.

“I like that it’s hands-on,” Jenks said, who also wants to be a career welder. “A lot of people are better shown than just told. As long as I can weld, I’ll love it.”

Career Development Coordinator Jason Perakis said events such as this gives students exposure to a future that they may not have envisioned before.

“These guys can explain for them the return of investment for a trade in this economy,” Perakis said.

When asked, many students stated the same thing — welding is by far their favorite class in school.

“They start at the very beginning and when they’re finished, they will have all the necessary certifications,” said RCC welding instructor Jason Felts. “I have three students right now who will have full-time jobs after school.”

In October, over 700 RCS students participated in the Be Pro Be Proud bus which delivered a mobile experience full of tools and resources to help students explore careers in technical roles. On interactive screens, students were able to find career paths and jobs that they might be interested in, and then find training sites and schools that accommodate the programs they’re interested in. They could also see the expected median wage for each job. According to their website, the median salary for an electrician is $65,000 while the median wage for a welder is $73,531.

“There’s not one thing you will touch throughout your day that a welder or machinist did not have their hands on,” said one of the WWA instructors stated before a group picture outside by their bus. “Don’t let somebody tell you that college is the only way. You might find a future by working with your hands.”

School board member Jerry Ethridge came to the event because he knows how important a trade education can be. He comes from three generations of blacksmith welders.

“It’s such an opportunity for kids,” Ethridge said. “There’s a lot of money to be made if you have the skills and are willing.”