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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Brody Scott looks on as Andrew Stock takes out a weld from a piece of steel using the CAC-A method, or carbon arc cutting with air, during the inaugural shielded metal arts welding course taught by Scott at Jefferson State Community College.
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Edward Lyons adjusts the horizontal band saw as he prepares to cut a piece of carbon steel.
After several years of planning and construction, the new welding center at Jefferson State Community College’s Shelby-Hoover campus is up and running.
The 5,000-square-foot building sits right next to the city of Hoover’s greenhouses off Valleydale Road and Jaguar Drive and includes 20 welding stations, a computerized numerical control plasma cutting table, several manual plasma cutting machines, an oxy-fuel cutting station and a classroom area that seats about 20 students at a time, said James Brody Scott, the welding instructor at the Shelby-Hoover campus.
Classes began in January, and Jeff State officials say the new facility is helping meet a strong demand for welders in central Alabama.
Right now, there are 16 students in the welding program at the Shelby-Hoover campus, but Scott expects that number to grow as word spreads about the new offerings.
Class sizes have been limited due to COVID-19, but Scott hopes those restrictions will be lifted by this fall. The maximum number of students allowed in the welding lab currently is 10, but that will double when the lab gets to full capacity, he said.
Demand for welders in central Alabama is really strong. 58 INC., an economic development group in Shelby County, recently determined that welding jobs are the second-highest jobs in demand in Shelby County.
Scott said he doesn’t have enough welders coming out of his program to fill all the requests he gets from companies looking for people. Students coming through his program aren’t guaranteed a job, but the job market is plentiful, he said.
The typical starting pay for welders in the Birmingham area ranges from $15 to $20 per hour, and the average for most experienced welders is $22 to $26, Scott said. Some even make more than $30 per hour, he said.
The beauty of Jefferson State’s new welding facility on its Shelby-Hoover campus is that it fills a void for people who live in areas such as Shelby County, south Jefferson County and Chilton County and have an interest in the welding profession, Scott said.
Until now, those people had to go to Jeff State’s campuses in Center Point and Pell City, Lawson State Community College’s campus in Bessemer, Trenholm State Community College in Montgomery or Central Alabama Community College in Childersburg, he said. Now, welding instruction is much more convenient.
Andrew Stock, a 23-year-old from Alabaster, is in his second semester of welding classes at Jeff State. For his first semester, he had to drive all the way to the Center Point campus, but now his welding instruction is much more conveniently located in Hoover.
He had started an apprenticeship to be a tattoo artist, but the pay wasn’t very consistent, so at the encouragement of several family members in the welding industry, he decided to try welding. He’s glad he did.
“I didn’t know anything about welding when I started here,” Stock said. Now, “I feel I am completely confident, and I can do just about any type of welding.”
He respects the instructor and loves the fully equipped welding lab and how it’s connected directly to classroom space, he said. “It’s a really cool place to learn.”
Jeff State’s new welding center represents a partnership with the city of Hoover, Shelby County, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and 58 INC.
Courses at the new facility are designed with a combination of online learning and hands-on training in the lab. The college offers both basic and advanced certifications, as well as a two-year associate degree program.
Students can earn industry-recognized welding certificates issued through the National Construction Center for Education & Research welding curriculum.
The curriculum correlates to the American Welding Society’s Schools Excelling through National Skills Education standards and guidelines for entry-level welders. Each class lasts about 16 weeks, Scott said.
Scott, who spent seven years in the military, is a certified welding inspector who has been in the industry for 12 years. After graduating from the welding school at Lawson State Community College, he worked for a company that repairs construction cranes. He then decided to get out of that side of the business and become an instructor.
A lot of people ask him why he did that because he was making good money working on cranes, he said. But his instructor job gives him more time with his family, and he gets a lot of fulfillment out of pouring into other people, seeing them grow and become employed due to their training, he said.
“It’s priceless,” Scott said. “Even if I won the lottery, I’d still be teaching because I enjoy what I do.”
Scott has an associate’s degree in occupational technology and a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in education. He taught at Lawson State Community College five years before coming to the new welding center at Jeff State.
Scott said now that his program is up and running, he hopes to reach out more and work with high school students, such as those at the Riverchase Career Connection Center. He would like to establish some partnerships and perhaps dual enrollment courses so high school students can earn college credit while still in high school, he said.
For more information about the welding program at Jefferson State Community College or to register, visit jeffersonstate.edu/registration-information.
