KIEL, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Kiel High School is expanding its welding program.
The school partnered with Lakeshore Technical College and Amerequip to supply 12 brand new welders.
“Like I said the big demand is welding in the area and all the manufacturing jobs but welding in particular like I said there’s 5 companies just in the community of Kiel that do a lot of welding and then there’s five, six, seven, eight, nine others in the immediate area that’s not even counting Sheboygan or Manitowoc,” Kiel High School Technical Education teacher Ron Schneider said.
“A year and a half ago we had 28 welders employed by others in the entire Midwest because we had a contract that worked out because we couldn’t find enough local welders to come in,” Amerequip president and CEO Mike Vanderzanden said.
Schneider tells FOX 11 he hopes this new equipment will help alleviate that need.
“This is bringing us up-to-date. It gives kids the opportunities to actually develop the skills that they need to enter into the local workforce.”
President of Lakeshore Technical College Paul Carlsen tells FOX students are 20% more likely to enroll in welding programs if they’ve been exposed in high school.
“The earlier we can expose high school students to technical education, in welding, or nursing, or public safety, the better.”
Lakeshore Technical College is allowing high school students to earn up to ten credits by enrolling in dual credit welding classes at Kiel.
Local companies hope this program will increase the number of job candidates.
“We wanted to see if there was a way to create an interest within the community of Kiel to give students that opportunity and it’s been truly rewarding to see what can happen when education and business and the community come together to solve a problem,” Vanderzanden said.
Kiel’s Technical Education program at the high school is coordinating with other local businesses to come up with safety and cleaning protocols for when the students return to school.
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