Talking Welding with a Midlands Tech Instructor

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Hello out there and listening world, Wesley Bray here with Core Scope Insights, where we're always at the core of industry expanding the scope. How are y'all doing tonight? Hope everybody had a great uh Easter. Hope everybody's getting uh over the pollen and the sneezing and the coughing. I know I've had my share of it, and I think uh this time of year just seems to get everybody in the spirits of summer and what's to come, but we all have to go through the speed bump of uh the pollen and everything that comes along with spring. But hey, uh Josh, I have got Josh Smith in the uh studio with me tonight, and Josh is the instructor at Midlands Tech uh for the welding program over there. So um way uh way out of the industry for HBAC tonight. But as I told you, we were gonna throw some curveballs and have some uh different content. So uh Josh, take it away, my friend. Tell me a little bit about yourself and um how you got into welding.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Yeah, I'd love to.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Uh so like I said, my name is Josh Smith.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Working on nuclear waste liners as well as like water purification systems. Spent some time in the nuclear industry as well as uh a fab shop around the Columbia area that did everything from ornamental work, like custom decorative pieces to structural components for hospitals and hotels and everything else. So I've kind of had my hand dipped in a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Wow, that's cool. So, what what inspired you to get into welding, Josh? I've I you know I I'm gonna be honest with you, you know, welding is something that has always intrigued me. Um, I did a little bit of it, I got to experiment with it when I was in the Navy on the ship. There was a weld when we were in the shipyard, um, the welder that I was we had to stand watch with a uh when you first get on to your your TAD. So temporary assigned duty, I had to stand watch for the welders and make sure fired it. And you stand there ready with a fire extinguisher. But I the one of the welders allowed me the opportunity to weld, so I got you know to try it out. I just sucked at it. But what what inspired you to get into welding? Because I think it's a very, very good trade.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Yeah, um, most of my family so most of them are all iron rigging and hanging iron for tall structures and stuff. Um anywhere from four to five hundred acres right there. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Um so learning how to weld on fence posts and cattle guards and everything like that was always seemed pretty cool, and then learning that it's actually a pretty lucrative career option um compared to a lot of the other things in the future. I mean, being able to see something built from raw steel to a structure, you know, is it's pretty cool to see.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Yes, very much so. Let me ask you what um so you're instructing these uh teenagers, a lot of them that come out of high school and they come to Midlands Tech, uh Midland Tech folks, and um, you know, they want to get started in welding, but what does a typical day for you look like as an instructor?

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Typical day for me, um we usually start our classes around eight o'clock in the morning. Uh I like to run our lecture classes first. So whether that be a welding safety class or a print reading class or destructive testing, anything like that. Uh so I'm teaching lecture classes, and then I teach anything from you know basic entry-level stick welding to TIG welding on pipe and other qualification classes to practice for the more advanced qualification tests that you do for a company when they need to test you for a job.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

So you guys, you guys have stick welding, TIG welding, stick, TIG, MIG, flux core, um we do carbon arc gouging, which is a cutting process, plasma cutting, oxy fuel cutting. Uh, we do just about everything.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

That's awesome. So my question is is how in demand are welders now, not only in South Carolina, but nationwide? I mean, you don't find you don't find people going into the trades, I don't feel as commonly as they used to, but what uh there's got I know there you you listen to the news, you listen to, you know, you read articles. I I redo a lot of reading on LinkedIn and stuff, and it looks like everybody's looking for someone with experience. But what are the opportunities in South Carolina and then outside abroad in the nation for welders right now?

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Um, it's huge. I mean, uh nationwide, I think there's currently around a 500,000 uh a need for another 500,000 welders as a shortage. Wow. Uh you can actually Google what the average age of a welder is, and it's like low to mid-50s. See, most everybody in the industry is getting ready to retire, so that's about to get a lot higher. Right. Uh in South Carolina that needs huge weed. I mean, our program's packed. A lot of people coming in, they're giving us more expansions to get more students in, but we still produce more students uh than the job availability, right? Wow. Uh I mean, other way around. There's more jobs that need to be filled than what we can out actually output.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

I was that was gonna I I was I was gonna ask you what um what industries are actually hiring the majority of your students now? What what uh manufacturers or businesses or in mainly industries uh I'm sure that are hiring welders right now. I mean, you know, not only South Carolina, but anything you know of. I mean, because I know you're on top of all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Yeah, so we help all we help with job placement for our students. Uh a lot of our students want to end up staying locally, so they're gonna end up in a manufacturing job, which still you're working with huge equipment. Um, so there's a lot of manufacturing around the Columbia area. You have Owen Steel, which was the I think they're one of the largest fabricators on the East Coast, and they're located in Columbia. They build skyscrapers up in New York and everything, just down here is where they're doing the prefab work uh for all the components that have to be shipped up there. There's a bunch of other manufacturing around Columbia. Some of our students end up going to smaller mom and pop shops because they know someone, they want to get their foot in the door. And then, I mean, some of our students want to go on the road.

unknown 7:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

So there's a lot of opportunity if you want to travel too. Um, we have students that'll end up going and working for unions or they have companies that come test them if they want to go into uh bowler making. Um, a lot of travel work options as well if they want to make more money.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Right. Now, I this is kind of off the beaten path, but do do students have to go through something? I'm sure I don't know if y'all teach it. I mean, it's under welding, underwater welding. Is that something y'all do?

SPEAKER_02 7:43

So that you we don't do that. There used to be an underwater welding school in Charleston. Really? Uh since then it's been closed down. I think the closest one now is in New Jersey.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Really?

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Um, but we've had previous people that do underwater welding come in. You still gotta learn welding on land first. Right. And you can Google all the job options for underwater welding and how much they get paid.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

But if you dig a little deeper, you find out only a small percentage of them actually make that top tier money. And you can make just as much money on land travel work on land doing plant work for power generation.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

That's awesome. Um, what is what is something uh that people uh in general misunderstand about uh welding as a career?

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Um some people just automatically assume, I guess it goes in any trade that it's gonna be easy and that anybody can do it. Um with welding, it takes a lot of hand-eyed coordination. Um so a lot of dexterity, um, being able to work not only both hands, but sometimes your foot at the same time while laying underneath the piece that you're welding. Um so you have to uh be able to be uncomfortable and still be able to produce quality work.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Tell everybody out there in the listening world who may um who may may question, you know, I'm sure this will uh uh get a lot of questions, but tell tell everybody out there in the listening world what a student needs to, what skills do they need to have to be successful as a welder.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Uh a lot of people would immediately think that the welding skill is the most important, but the feedback we get from companies are more of the uh soft skills, I guess. And this generation seems to be lacking more and more, you know, holding being accountable, um, being able to be punctual and showing up to work, not just not showing up, not even letting them know that you're not gonna show up. Right. Um, and any trade you need to learn how to read a tape measure. Right. Uh that's a huge one we get them in there and basic math and being able to read a tape measure. You gotta be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Some of them skills are very, very important to get overlooked.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

And how how long would you say um that it takes for someone to become job ready?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

I mean depends because there's so many different industries inside welding. I mean, we can get somebody from the LTC program that could could have, you know, immediately went and found a job in manufacturing, but maybe they want to get into more something more advanced, like TIG pipe welding, welding on stainless steel and some different alloys. Sure. Um so it kind of depends on what area they want to dive into and um how much work they're willing to put in.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

That's awesome. That's awesome. So um as far as going through the Midlands tech program, um is there that's a two-year program, is that correct? And that when they graduate, what kind of um certificates or do they have from there? And then what can they do from from that if you can enlighten everybody out there in the listening world a little bit? Where can they go from a two-year uh degree? Is it a degree or is it a certificate? Okay, yeah. So talk tell us a little bit about the programs that y'all offer and what they what your students uh leave with and what they can do afterwards to further their career.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

Yeah, so the biggest thing they're coming in, they're being able to develop the skills, we're letting them practice the test that they're gonna do for the job that they want to go to. They'll end up with an associate's degree, which which could help them down the roll road if they want to maybe pursue and go into inspection work. I think all of our instructors are.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Um, so by getting the associate's degree, you can actually lower the years of experience needed to be able to go take the test. So that's helpful. You leave with two certificates and completion. Um, South Carolina works a little differently than you hear on you know TikTok and everything else about all the certifications. Uh South Carolina companies mainly work on a qualification system, which is the in-house system of making sure someone is qualified to do the work. So it's the same test as a certification test, just it's in-house of the company, and they will do that test and issue you a qualification that stays in your record at that company.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Oh, that's cool. I know I I had some I needed a welder to do some work for me not too long ago. I guess it's been about a month or a month and a half ago, and I had a gentleman show up here and do some welding for me, and he was a traveling welder. I had come, had his gear in this van with him, and you know, did what I needed to do. And I mean, I guess there's all kinds of opportunity if you want to go. I mean, you don't I don't know. Uh I there was a every you know, I put on Facebook looking for someone that could do some welding, and all my friends suggested other different people. And uh I I I made a connection with a guy, and he did a great job as far as you know what I know about welding. But I mean, like I said, something I've always been interested in, and it was even cool just to watch him do it. Of course, you know, um, I guess you gotta protect your eyes and everything. And I'm sitting there trying to squint to watch, yeah, I wanted to watch so badly, you know, because I find it I really find it intriguing. But um, what's let me ask you this what what separates a good welder from a great welder?

SPEAKER_02 13:05

That's uh that's a good question. I don't know, there's just something like a lot of people can be good enough to be acceptable by code. Um but then you run into run into a pretty good welder now and then that is just flat out just slick. Um everything they do is clean, and I guess the biggest thing to separate them a lot of times can just be pride.

unknown 13:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

You know, a big thing that people need to do more is take pride in your work. Uh I think that can easily separate a good someone good from someone great.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Absolutely. Good answers. Well, folks, that's gonna bring us to our first break in the show. We're gonna uh wrap up segment one here with uh Josh, but man, I I'm really intrigued. I can't wait to get into segment two. We're gonna take just a moment to recognize our sponsors, can't thank them enough, and a show wouldn't be a show without our sponsors. So y'all stay tuned, we'll be right back. When your business depends on reliable cooling, you need a partner who understands the science behind keeping things running. That's Hudson Technologies, America's leader in refrigerant solutions. From recovery and reclamation to the refrigerants you rely on every day, Hudson delivers certified high-quality products that keep HVAC systems, commercial facilities, and industrial operations performing at their peak. Their unmatched reclamation network means you get refrigerant you need pure, tested, and ready for service. And with Hudson's commitment to sustainability, you're not just keeping systems running, you're helping protect the future of the industry itself. When performance matters, trust the team with the experience, the technology, and the supply to keep you moving. Hudson Technologies, refrigerants reimagined. Learn more at Hudsontech.com. When the weather changes in the Carolinas, your comfort shouldn't. That's why homeowners all across Andrews, South Carolina rely on Bruce Brown heating and air. From quick, dependable repairs to installing modern, energy efficient systems, Bruce Brown keeps your home feeling just right no matter the season. Their certified technicians show up on time, diagnose issues accurately, and deliver honest, reliable service you can count on. No pressure, no surprises, just a local team committed to keeping your family comfortable all year round. Need a repair? Ready for an upgrade? Trust the pros who put customers first. For your comfort needs, call 843-264-5483. Alright, so we're back with Josh Smith tonight. What a pleasure it is for me to just talk welding because it's something I totally have mentioned a couple of times already. I have a huge interest in. So uh um I want to ask, what are some of the biggest uh challenges that face uh the the students with with um with learning how to weld?

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Um hand-eye coordination.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Um be able to weld that straight line, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Straight. And it's when you're welding, it's really bright, you you're doing something wrong because you shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

So throwing your helmet.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

That means it's arcing, right? Or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

But when you got your helmet down, it's supposed to be dark and you should see the puddle. That puddle's giving off just enough light to see what's around it.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

So being able to have that depth perception, being able to see what's going on. Um, I'd say that's really important.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

And tell tell everybody, I mean, I guess it depends on where you're working at in the industry you're working at. Um like, you know, some of these big steel places and manufacturers. I mean, it could uh welding can be physically demanding, can it not be?

unknown 16:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Um a lot of places, I mean, you can easily work a 12-hour shift. That's kind of the norm. Um it's hot, right? Right. Especially down here in South Carolina, on top of the heat in the summer, you got you're wearing all that protective gear. You're you got all the humidity, you're covered head to toe to protect you from the uh UV rays coming off the well puddle. Um, and then you're working with a lot of times it could be dirty steel. Yeah. Out beating in the sun, laying in a ditch. Um, so it can be very physically demanding.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

And that next, I want to talk about what advice you can give someone uh who's thinking about enrolling at Midlands Tech. Maybe they're getting ready to graduate, because hey, we're gonna have a graduating class here very soon out of high school. So maybe they're making their choices now and their decisions on where they want to go. Talk about, um, if you could, to the audience out there a little bit, maybe somebody listening, maybe on the fence of what they want to do and where they want to go. Um, talk about Midlands Tech and what they offer as a school to these students and the opportunities you guys provide.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, I'd say our reputation kind of speaks for itself. Um, our classes fill up really quick. So if you are on the fence about wanting to, you know, be a part of the program, you want to sign up quick. If you want to come out and take a tour, um, you could always uh stop by the welding shop, uh, try to call somebody at the school. They can give you my number, my email. You can shoot me an email if you want to stop by. I can walk you around and you can go check out other welding schools, can get some comparison, especially if you don't know anything about welding. You walk into their first welding shop and that's all you know. So go look at somewhere else too and compare the two of what they are.

unknown 18:28

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

It's gotta be a rewarding career. It's kind of like, you know, I look at welding as something you're starting from scratch. And you could be building skyscrapers, I mean, you could be welding airplanes together, automobiles. I mean, there's such a uh a plethora of opportunities for welders. So that that kind of um kind of led me to a question I wanted to ask you specifically. Talk about one of your favorite jobs uh that you've done andor a project that you've worked on. Talk about one of your favorite projects you've been able to work on.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Um probably the favorite thing, isn't that crazy? Is building a stainless gas tank for a car I was rebuilding. I'd say the craziest thing I was working on. Um there was kind of a not like a big thing, a little leak in a containment vessel at a power plant. I forgot where it was, but it was had radiation, right? So a lot of young people don't know about these, but you know the old Russian nesting dolls?

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Not familiar with that.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

Inside a bigger one that caps off.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Oh, yeah, okay. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

So it kind of reminded me of that because I had to we had to build a round shell with swinging arms that could go in and pick up this this uh container and then it had to fit inside of a bigger one to be filled up and capped off to go inside of a bigger one. Which that was that was crazy. I think that day I worked a 21 hour shift.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

Really? Oh yeah, I was that was long hours.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Like uh when it was now was it your stick welding or that one it was mainly Meg and Flut Score?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Um, just because we need to let need it done quick.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

All right, explain to an idiot like myself. Yes, I'm calling myself an idiot, folks, because I I I really want to learn know the difference. What is the difference between uh uh uh I'm assuming what I did when you got the stick through the your stick welding, but what is MIG and TIG? What is what does that all stand for?

SPEAKER_02 20:36

What is the acronyms MIG, TIG, and you know, can you say welding, the acronym is SMAW. Okay. So it's uh shielded metal arc welding. It's a metal core that's shielded with flux that creates a gas shield little uh reaction when you're welding.

unknown 20:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Um I'd say the next one I'd talk about would be Meg welding, which that's the one where you see the guys welding and they're holding like a little gun, squeezing the trigger.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Folks, the host had his phone on.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

I should be slapping my wrist. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Then you got Meg welding, which is GMAW, it's gas metal arc welding. So you have a solid uh metal wire um that has a silicon uh coating on it um that's on a wire spool, right? And it's fed through a wire feeder. You actually set the wire feed speed on the machine so it feeds out at a certain inches per minute. Okay. Uh you set your voltage. That one has an external shielding gas. That for most cases it's gonna be an argon and CO2 mixture.

unknown 21:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

So 7525 mixture on that. Uh flux core welding is almost kind of the in between between stick welding and miG welding. So it has the same wire spool and the same equipment as MIG welding, but it's flux cord, right? So it has a metal wire where the core of it has flux, the same as the stick rod has flux on the outside. Right. So it does still create a slag covering as your welding that you have to chip off. And for flux core, they can use self-shielded or dual shield. So self-shielded, you don't need an external um shielding gas, whereas dual shield you do. And typically you're gonna run the same shielding gas you would with the uh MIG welding process. Okay. Right. And then you go into TIG welding, which I think is probably the most challenging one for people to kind of learn. Okay. Um, because when you're TIG welding, you have a torch in this hand that has a tungsten, piece of tungsten as your electrode. Okay. Right. So that's what creates the arc. And your other hand, you're holding a filler wire.

unknown 22:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

So you're feeding into the puddle.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

More like soldering, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Kinda.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Kinda, okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Uh and that cannot touch the tungsten. If it does bad things, bad things happen. Uh with that being said, you can add more difficulty to it by adding a foot pedal that's controlling your heat. Wow. So adding all that together while you're going around a piece of pipe um can make that one really difficult.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

That can be about as meticulous as uh operating an old sewing machine today.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

So trying to get your stitch. I mean, it it I guess it kind of affiliates to that, you know, where they had the old pedals and everything. I'm I'm kidding, folks. I'm not that stupid trying to uh tie the two together, sewing and and welding, but uh just very interesting. I mean, I personally would love to go through the course, I believe, because I I find it so interesting. Um, but I mean what what is um what is something that a welder should invest in early? What piece of equipment should they invest in early? Make sure they get you know what they need, talk maybe a little bit about what every welder should have. Or do you guys you you guys don't provide it at the clo school, do you?

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Or no, we don't provide it. We give them a tool list of what they are required to have.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Um part lists we give them, it's the best bang for your buck. We're not trying to get you to go out there and spend the most money, right? Because welding hoods could range from a $50 hood at one store um to a couple grand. Sure. Right? So we're not trying to get you to spend an arm and leg for all your tools. We're trying to get you something that'll last a decent amount of time, but it's also you know, decent quality. I'd say the biggest thing a welder has to invest in is definitely their welding hood, right? Because I mean, you hear stories about welders going blind and stuff. Um a lot of times that's from them not wearing a hood in general.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

That's the that's the flip helmet, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:47

That's your biggest investment because without your eyes, you can't do the work. Sure, right? So being able to invest in a decent helmet um can definitely uh not only help you safely help you work safely, right? But actually gives you better visual clarity as you're looking at the weld.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Right. Uh now um talking about uh welding, and we're trying to stay on the positive things of it, but I'm sure there are the gas there's gas as you're you're breathing and things, so it's you know, are there respirators you wear under the there or uh for certain it depends on the material. Really?

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Yeah, so it depends on the material. So if you're welding on galvanized or a lot of times like some stainless steels, like stick welding and stuff, that can release like hexavalent chromium, uh, which is not good for you to breathe in. So depending on the material you're welding now on, uh, will depend on the PPE that's needed, right? There's a bunch of different types of respirators that can be pumping fresh air in. So it really just depends on the material and the ventilation around you, right? So you gotta have some type of ventilation when you're welding, whether it's you know, if you're outside, you got natural ventilation, air is moving, it's blowing stuff away. If you're in a confined area, there's a different protocol going into it as far as ventilation concerns go. A lot of times they'll have tubes ran into tanks if you're welding side of them, either prep pushing fresh air in or pulling air out. In addition to that, you have gases and stuff you gotta worry about. So I know a bunch of jobs I've done where I was in a confined space, you have a air sniffer.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Right? So you have that in where you're working, and that's monitoring all the different levels of all the different gases. And if anything gets close to outside the normal range, it'll start buzzing and beeping and going off, meaning you have to immediately exit and figure out what happened, right? Why it happened, um, to make sure you are staying safe.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

That's cool. Well, folks, there's a reason I had Josh on tonight, uh, not only because he's a great guy, um, very, very uh easy to talk to, but he's uh I feel like he has a passionate enough about what he's doing that you know you know he does when you know he's teaching youngsters to do his trade. So um, Josh, we're gonna take our last break. We'll come back segment three and we're gonna let you spin the prize wheel before the end of the show. So uh we'll find out what lucky listener wins a prize tonight. And um, so uh I would like to have Josh back on the show another time. Josh, would you please be a guest again some other time? Because I've I find this very uh entertaining and educational myself. But folks, we'll be right back. Y'all stay tuned. Thank y'all for watching. Can we all agree that when your equipment stops, your business stops? That's why professionals trust bearing supply in West Columbia. They provide high-quality bearings, power transmission parts, industrial supplies, and expert support to keep operations running smoothly. When you're in manufacturing, automotive, construction, or maintenance, their knowledgeable team helps you find exactly what you need fast. With dependable products and customer-focused service, Bearing Supply keeps the Midlands moving. Call them today at 803-791-0371. That's eight oh three seven nine one zero three seven one. Is your home feeling more hot and bothered than cool and comfortable? Don't sweat it. Call Cool Care Heating and Air of the Lord, all right, we are back with Josh. Hey, wonderful uh conversation, and I I'm having a blast. Um, but listen, um, we're we're winding down, so we're getting to that part that everybody uh likes to see if and they keep their fingers crossed to see if they want anything. Hey, but it out there, if you haven't subscribed, please go to Core Scope Insights uh podcast on YouTube, subscribe to our podcast, give us a like, a thumbs up, and we certainly would appreciate it. And um, so Josh, I'm gonna ask you one more question here, and then we well, I'm gonna ask you a couple more questions, but where do you see the welding industry in five to ten years?

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Um, so I just had the opportunity to go to Cleveland, uh, I think it was in November, uh, to Lincoln, Lincoln Electric's World Headquarters. Oh, yeah. So I got to go through there. Uh, there's a bunch of cool stuff with automation. Okay. And a bunch of people, I mean, that I talk to are worried about, you know, automation and stuff coming in and taking jobs and everything, which that's not gonna happen, even from the companies that work with robotics. Uh, you need someone that knows how to weld to be able to watch the welder, control the welder still, um, and be able to diagnose problems.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Uh, but automation is becoming a thing that's getting out there more. Some companies are using it to take away remedial tasks that they could be having their employee do a lot better things.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Um, so it's more the robotics are going to be helping uh the production with the industry. I did see one thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

You're gonna need quality control.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Oh, you still need quality control, you still need welders, but some of those remedial tasks where you're just sitting there welding the same thing over and over, it can take some of those tasks away and put that welder on something more meaningful. Um, I also got to host a little meeting for our local American Welding Society chapter. And I had a guy come in talking about robotics, and he actually showed us um AI and so they're calling it adaptive technology to where it's able to go through and reprograms and adapt to what's happening as it's welding.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

But they're talking about using some of that in places where they can't necessarily get a person up there uh in an easy to access place um for certain jobs, which it's still early, early on in the works, like prototypes and stuff. Sure. Um I mean the job still needs, I mean, the people need welders, it's not gonna change. Yep. Uh huge shortage is continuing to grow. Um, there's definitely not gonna AI is not gonna come take all of our jobs.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

That's true, very true. That's so interesting just to talk about it and uh you know to learn what's available. So at this point in the show, Josh, I would love for you, um, unless you have something else you want to add, but if any and feel free at any time. This is uh this is uh open dialogue. So um, but what do you uh how can people that are interested in the program, how can they get in touch with you? Do you have an email or do they need to contact Midlands Tech? Just talk about how they would approach the uh the technical college about getting into the program.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Yeah, you could uh shoot me an email. Uh my email is smithjk at midlandstech.edu.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Uh if you just shoot me an email saying who you are, tell me you want to come out and see the facility or talk about a program, and I'll reach back out to you and we can set up a time for you to come chat and look around.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Awesome. And one thing we talked about during the break, and I think it's uh important to mention, is it's not only the two-year program, but if someone wants to get involved or come to a night class and do one or the other MIG or stick or you know, so those classes are available too. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

So even if you want to come take a one-off class for stick welding and MIG welding, like you want to do as a hobby or something, you can do that. Or for the people that need to be able to work a full-time job to support a family, but are still trying to, you know, head and uh make a change in careers.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Right? We got that program set up where we have a morning section, an afternoon section, and a night section that goes from six to nine. So it can kind of work around your schedule while you still work a full-time job. I've had guys work a night shift, come in for the morning class, go get some sleep before they go back to work. I mean, it will be rough for a little bit, but you know, looking at the end goal of where do you want to be, sure. Um, that's another option that the school offers.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, folks, at this point in time, I'm gonna go over and join Josh at the table. So y'all stay tuned. We're gonna spin the prize wheel, and then Josh is gonna help me say goodnight to you folks out there.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

So stay tuned.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

All right, you can't use a Walmart gift card. Set that aside, Josh. Now you get to spin this around, rotate it, however you want to do it. Pull out one lucky winner.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

All right, this is the part where I got my fingers crossed, folks. Just one. Scott Johnson.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

Scott Johnson, all right, with April Hair. Good friend of mine, Scott. Hope you're doing well out there. Uh, thank you for subscribing to the show. And uh I know you can go find something you want to walk on. Folks, that's gonna do it for tonight's show. Thank y'all so much for watching. Thanks for staying tuned. Josh, great having you. Thanks for having me. Doing this again with you is great. We can cover some other stuff about welding. Yes, sir. And um, so thank you folks for staying tuned. And uh, we're gonna say good night. I'm gonna one, two, three. Good night.

unknown 35:17

All right.