By Valerie Sliker, courtesy Wagener Monthly
Former Wagener-Salley High School (WSHS) graduates Richie Bailey, Jamie Poole and Oscar Rushton are excited about continuing the welding programs at Swansea High School (SHS), WSHS and South Aiken High School (SAHS) for the 2016/17 school year. The three instructors intentionally collaborate to ensure their programs run closely together. They put in a lot of time together working out different processes, project based learning (PBL) curriculum and pacing guides for how the years are going to flow. While the students don’t actually cross-participate, the instructors pace curriculum so they can turn to each other for problem solving, as well as recommendations.
Statistics show that the trade workforce is diminishing and people aren’t available to fill these jobs because they’ve been encouraged to get a college degree instead of developing a skill. Far too many students are graduating college with too much debt and a scarcity of jobs available. Career and Technology classes are making a come-back and proving to support the jobs that become the backbone of America.
High school welding students are graduating with the knowledge of an entry level welder, not requiring further education to grab a job. WSHS Welding Instructor Richie Bailey encourages his students to attend Aiken Tech for welding or industrial maintenance, free with the Life or Hope scholarship, and about 70% did last year. However, he adds, “Kids need to understand that you can be successful with a trade. You can make a lot of money in the service industry. The sky is the limit. If you have the desire and the work ethic, you can be successful without the four-year college.”
High school graduates who complete the welding program and pursue welding as a career can work at nuclear facilities, at building and bridge steel erection companies, at fabrication or customization shops, in HVAC work and many more jobs, including art.
WSHS has been offering Welding Tech I, II, III and IV for over forty years. Students that complete the four-year welding program at WSHS receive a full year of college credit in Aiken Tech’s welding program. Jamie Poole was the WSHS instructor for five years before crossing county lines to teach at SHS three years ago when Richie Bailey took over the WSHS program. SAHS has been offering welding for just four years with Wagener native Oscar Rushton the instructor all four years. WSHS and SAHS are the only Aiken County schools that offer the welding program inside the schools. Students in the other schools are bused to the Aiken County Career & Technology Center (“Aiken Career Center”) except for Ridge-Spring Monetta (RSM). New this year, RSM students attend WSHS for welding, building construction, cosmetology and JROTC.
Photo: Richie Bailey at WSHS welding lab.
These CATE (Career and Technology Education) classes are great programs that, according to WSHS Principal Ute Aadland, aren’t being filled to capacity. According to Aadland, the fees associated with CATE classes present a real problem for some of the students. Those fees go to consumables that are used in the classroom, fees that many parents can’t afford despite the payment plan WSHS offers. Aadland has been actively soliciting donations from the community in order to establish scholarships for students who are unable to afford the fees. The goal is to increase enrollment in these programs. She asserts, “This community ultimately benefits because we can send students out into the world with skills that will allow them to earn a living wage. A high school diploma only is not enough anymore and we have to do whatever we can as a school and community to make sure our children have a vision for the future.”
Community and citizens alike are invited to designate monetary donations to the welding programs as well as donations of scrap metal for the students to practice on. Pipe, tubing, stainless, aluminum, regular carbon steel, anything that’s not rusted or corroded can be used, even horse shoes. Last year, SAHS used donated horse shoes for art projects that they sold on the school’s website.
In addition to selling yard art, funds are raised when the students do repairs for individuals in exchange for a small donation to the welding program. Repairs have to be something on the student level that they can repair. In Aiken, send your repair request to [email protected] and he will evaluate it for you. The WSHS welding program hopes to use their new CAD cutting system for some fundraising projects, but they are still learning how to use this new machine. In the meantime, WSHS students have been busy on projects that benefit the school such as designing new signs for the school. Students also have been involved in repairing equipment and furniture which ultimately saves the school a tremendous amount of money.
CATE has provided WSHS with many top of the line welding machines, including the new Torchmate CNC Cutting System that works off a CAD system and many other brand new welding machines that have a lot of computer components. Bailey is grateful that WSHS has state of the art equipment and is no longer running off twenty-year old machines.
While the WSHS welding program enrollment is somewhat lower this year, the enrollment at SAHS continues to climb. WSHS generally has 20 – 23 welding students per year in a high school of 300 while SAHS has 40 – 45 welding students this year and over 1400 students at the school overall. According to Rushton, “It’s been a full program since we started and we have a large percent of females enrolled, relatively speaking.” Last year, SAHS had five females enrolled; the year before, only two. “That’s a large percentage of women for a welding program.”
WSHS has had some females in the welding program in the past. This year brings Bailey his first female student and he suggests that If she keeps going the way she has, she’ll be the best he’s ever had. “She’s really, really good, but she loves it; it’s something she really wants to do and she works at it.”
For the 2016/17 school year, Rushton would like to see his program produce one entry for the individual SkillsUSA competition. Last year, he took four welding students to the competition and finished third in state in Teen Fabrication and third in state for individual metal sculpture. At SkillsUSA, the fabrication teams are given a blueprint they have seen before and they have to build something accordingly. The three winning teams go in the next day and have to build from a blueprint they have never seen before and they have to use multiple processes. Last year was the first competition for SAHS and they placed, which was a big achievement. Rushton clearly is doing something right.
Another competition both schools participate in is an American Welding Society (AWS) competition held each year at Midlands Tech. Last year, SAHS implemented an AWS student chapter, one of just six chapters in our state and the only chapter on the high school level.
Another fun competition the schools might participate in is the Florence Darlington Technology College (FDTC) Welding Rodeo. The rodeo presents a large stack of materials and announces a theme. A competing student will pick out the material and build the best project he or she can, based on the material chosen, the allotted time, the theme and the requirements.
It’s refreshing to visit the Career and Technology classes at the high school level. These are irreplaceable skills our students are learning, as well as art, and many schools are fading these programs out. I consider it an honor that WSHS, one of the smallest rural schools in Aiken County, has some of the finest modern welding equipment available and we have our own graduates investing in the lives of many generations.
Richie Bailey has been at WSHS for three years. A WSHS 1988 graduate, Bailey welded in the construction business for twenty years before resuming his education and getting a degree in education. In addition to instructing the welding program, Bailey also coaches the War Eagle baseball team.
Jamie Poole has been at SHS for three years and was at WSHS for the five years prior to that. A WSHS 1996 graduate, Poole is married and has two children.
Oscar Rushton, also a 1996 WSHS graduate, worked at Aiken County Public Works before taking this job at SAHS when they opened a welding program. Married to Mae Poole in 1999, Rushton has served the youth in our community in many ways including church youth groups and little league sports. He hopes to retire as a welding instructor at SAHS.