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I'm Zachary Kulwicki.
I am a welder and fabricator.
A welder gets to play
with fire and electricity a lot.
On the most grandiose scale,
it's pretty much shooting
bottled lightning
into a volcano.
There are three
different forms of welding.
MIG welding,
which is metal inert gas.
that's for most
production welding.
You have what is colloquially
known as "stick" welding,
which is shielded
metal arc welding,
which is the big electrodes
for heavy-duty welding
of buildings and bridges.
Then for the really fine
detail work,
you'll use TIG welding, which is
tungsten inert gas welding,
and it leaves a clean,
polished look at the end.
And it's such
an interesting field
that you can get into
any aspect of daily life,
and you can look
at any corner of a room,
and there's probably something
that was welded.
With everything going on
as far as energy demands,
internationally,
depending on
if pipelines or oil rigs
in North, South Dakota,
need to be fabricated,
you have plenty of jobs there
that are going to be
up-and-coming.
High rises
in New York City or L.A.
Even around the world,
high rises are always going up.
I think a lot of it is
the fact that
the skill was so diminished,
I would say.
Over the past couple
of decades,
you have the baby boomers who
learned it after World War II
and have been in the trade
skills for the past 50 years,
who are now retiring.
So there's a huge gap
of information and skill
that needs to be filled.
There are a set of codes
and standards
which almost all places
will follow,
and that's set by
the American Welding Society.
If you go through
a certain course,
you can become
a certified welding inspector
to make sure that
all of those guidelines are met
with every weld on a job.
More often than not,
those certifications
are for areas
such as pipe welding,
boilermakers, ironworkers,
et cetera, et cetera.
As far as
high school students go,
you're going to need to know,
or at least can tolerate,
most maths.
If you want to work
for a metallurgical company,
R&D department
sort of things--
creating new filler material--
you need to know a lot
more chemistry to know that.
You will need to know
some types of physics
for the jobs
you're working with,
especially if you're
a fabricator,
along with just doing welding.
Very often,
the two go together.
My parents went to college.
They wanted all the best for us.
I think that's
what parents want--
only the best
for their kids.
And I think a lot of times
the only avenue that people see
is the four-year university,
graduating with a bachelor's,
then going and getting
a master's
and possibly a doctorate.
But I find that a lot of people
with skilled trades
have a more rewarding life.
Funding to purchase and make
this educational production
accessible was provided by the
U.S. Department of Education.
PH:1-800-USA-LEARN (V)
or WEB: www.ed.gov.
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