SMC Summer Program Teaches Welding To Middle School Students

niles-welders
niles-welders

Southwestern Michigan College has opened up some of its career training facilities to middle school students this summer. It says eight Niles Middle School students came to the Niles SMC campus in July to learn how to weld. It may have been the hottest week of the summer, but the kids didn’t beat the heat so much as bend it to their will, plunging pieces they created by melting metal to 3,000 degrees into water. Welding instructor Allyson Starrett says she got interested in the trade as a young person when she attended a similar camp. Niles High School Career and Technical Education Director Carrie George partnered with YMCA and wrote a grant to provide the welding camp. SMC says the camp will hopefully get the students more interested in CTE. It notes welders are in high demand because almost every industry needs them. Salaries range from an average median of $41,000 to more than $100,000.