Training locals to fill skilled welding jobs in Plattsburgh

Sep 10, 2024 —

For several decades now, a cluster of transportation and aerospace manufacturing companies have been growing in Clinton County.

Gary Douglas, the CEO of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, says about 40 companies are generating around 9,000 jobs in that sector.

“Part of our commitment [as a chamber] is to help meet their changing and future needs so they can not only be sustained here and prosper here but grow here,” said Douglas.  “It became very clear a couple of years ago that one of the critical needs was for highly skilled welders.”  

Plattsburgh’s factories have struggled to fill those welding jobs in recent years. A new program is trying to change that by training North Country residents to weld at Clinton Community College.

The grant funded program is free to participants and removes traditional education barriers like transportation and child care.

The Welding Academy at Clinton Community College 

The ‘Welding Academy’ is a joint effort between The North Country Chamber of Commerce, Lincoln Electric, local manufacturers and Clinton Community College. The training takes place in Clinton Community College’s Institute of Advanced Manufacturing.

There are 12 welding booths in the big industrial space where 12 students learn how to weld during a three-week, 120-hour intensive course.

Padraic ‘Patti’ Bean, one of the program instructors, says the ultimate goal is to train local folks who are already interested in welding to help supply Plattsburgh’s manufacturing factories.

Bean has seen the need firsthand at Alstom, a train car manufacturer. He used to work there and had to recruit welders.  “As we geared up for some of our railcar contracts, I saw how hard it was not only to meet the number [of welders needed], but then to keep that number met,” said Bean. “We traveled up to Massachusetts, Connecticut and out West. We traveled all over the place to try to recruit welders and it was incredibly difficult.”

The American Welding Society says by 2026, the US will be short about 370,000 welders. “Not only is there need in the North Country, there’s need all over the country,” said Bean. 

The Welding Academy won’t make up all that gap, but it could make a difference in Plattsburgh, especially for nontraditional students.

Joel Woods works at the North Country Chamber of Commerce and helped build the program. “And what we hear from the students is ‘I had an opportunity, I missed it.’ Or ‘I didn’t go to vocational school and I should have,’ said Woods.  We’ve trained people who are formally incarcerated.”

Bean said the course is short but effective. Initially, he was a bit skeptical of the course length of just three weeks. 

“Is that really enough time to be impactful? One of the things that I think maybe we overlooked is the educational efficiency,” said Bean. “They are in the shop eight hours a day, and they have the same amount of welding time as you would get in some one-year programs.”

Bean said it’s been amazing to see what you can cram into a couple weeks, “with a dedicated group, dedicated instructors and dedicated support. It’s just it’s a testament to what you can do when the whole group gets together with the right intentions and really pushes to take an initiative across the finish line.”

Graduation of the third cohort of the Welding Academy, at Clinton Community College’s Institute for Advanced Manufacturing. Padraic ‘Patti’ Bean at the podium.

A competitive program with perks 

It’s competitive to get a slot in each 12-student cohort. Thats because the program is free, and pulls down many educational barriers. It pays students who have to take off work a stipend, offers mileage reimbursement (students have come from as far as Akwesasne, more than an hour’s drive away) and child care assistance. 

Woods says the first cohort in the Spring of 2023 had 150 applicants.

“For the second cohort, we had 130. Again, we could only take 12. Then for this session we had just about 100 sign up and again we can still only take 12, so we’ve been trying to get in as many students as we can,” said Woods. 

He said the demand in the area for welders is still high. “We check in with the employers, ‘Are you still hiring?’ to make sure the students who are coming out with certifications and training are going to be able to find gainful employment. And they are,” said Woods. 

Sienna Brooks. Photo: Amy Feiereisel

The third cohort graduated in May, surrounded by their families and loved ones.

One of the graduates is 25-year old Sienna Brooks. She lives in Altona, about 20 miles from Plattsburgh. She says she’d played around with basic soldering before the Welding Academy, but couldn’t take the time or spend the money on a traditional welding training program.

“Most other programs I looked into were, you know, $4,000 to $10,000, which really was not on my financial plate at the time,” said Brooks. 

Brooks lives by herself and has animals. She says the stipend made a huge difference to her. 

“That was really a sigh of relief when they told me that I would have that stipend check because then I wasn’t worried about rent, my car bill, my car payment, and I actually had the peace of mind to focus on my studies and on what I was learning,” said Brooks. 

Brooks says when she got in the welding booth, something clicked, and she sees a career in welding. “I would like to be one of the solar panel techs and or a wind turbine tech, so preferably field work. You know I want to be that welder they send out to put everything together out in the field.”

Twenty-year old Nilazjah Moore was one of the younger participants. She’s from Plattsburgh, and says she wanted to take welding in high school through CV Tech, but wasn’t able to. “I had some problems in high school so this was actually a great opportunity for me to do that,” said Moore. “Currently I’m a cook at a nursing home, so that’s not really permanent. But maybe I could find a permanent career in welding.” 

Moore says it took some getting used to, but that she had tons of support, from instructors and the other students.

“Well, when I first started, I wanted to quit immediately,” said Moore. “Like, I don’t like things that I’m not immediately good at, and obviously this definitely takes time but I had an amazing support system. Everybody was like, ‘You’re not quitting. You’re not.”

Nilazjah Moore. Photo: Amy Feiereisel

Advancing people already working in manufacturing 

Brett Hughes is 26 years old and lives in Champlain. He heard about the Welding Academy through his job at Alstom, where he’s currently working on the assembly line, putting in piping and sealing up train cars.

He applied when Alstom said they would pay for assemblyman to attend the Welding Academy.

“They just offered it. They were like, if anybody’s interested in learning how to weld and wants to advance, we’re willing to send people,” said Hughes. “And I thought. ‘Yeah. Why not?’ You know, I’m always willing to learn. I’m quick to learn. And I want to learn.” 

The certification he got at the Welding Academy will allow him to take a welding test at Alstom and allow him to change jobs.

Hughes says he likes welding because of the challenge. “I think it’s the science of it. There’s a lot of science behind what gas type you’re using, the metals that you’re welding together,” said Hughes. 

Brett Hughes. Photo: Amy Feiereisel

After the Welding Academy graduation at Clinton Community College, the whole cohort headed over to Alstom for a factory tour. Alstom builds trains and railcars in an enormous, 280,000 square foot facility in Plattsburgh. They have just under 300 employees.

The factory’s General Manager, Jeffrey Lambert, took us onto the factory floor, where Alstom was building trains and subways for Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco and New Jersey Transit.

“Instead of building stuff in the car, we deliver finished pieces to the car to just assemble the finished product,” Lambert explained to students. 

Welding at Alstom. Photo by Patti Bean.

The company needs more welders which is why it recently built a dedicated space for on-site welding practice, with six welding booths. Keegan Hartman oversees this area as Alstom’s Local Welding Coordinator. He’s also a Welding Academy instructor.

He gave student a tour of the room, where welders do practice welds, then test them and break them. “We have about 15 to 16 different welds, that they [welders] have to make in all different positions; overhead, horizontal,” said Keegan. 

Gabe Nalley was using one of the welding booths when we arrived. “Me personally, I’m a pipe fitter and so I have to go through in some of the weirdest positions you can imagine,” said Nalley. “Like I’m welding left-handed with a mirror backwards.” 

Last Spring, Nalley was in the first cohort of the Welding Academy. He says the program helped him move forward in life.

“I mean, there’s obviously the money factor, right? There’s a huge pay boost just going from being an assemblyman to a skilled labor,” said Nalley. “That’s giving me a lot of opportunities just with my family and my personal life.” 

It’s also opened up professional opportunities, said Nalley. He played around with carbon steel welding when he was a teenager, but stainless steel welding is the standard in manufacturing. “Skill-set wise like it’s definitely opened up a lot of possibilities and just opportunities that I wasn’t going to have as an assembler.”

Nalley says welding is engaging, and a lot more interesting than what he used to do, working on the assembly line.

“I kind of see it as more of like an art form. You actually get to sit there and control the bead and you have to work with the temperatures and all your different settings,” said Nally. “It’s a lot more hands-on. It makes me feel more valued as an employee. I don’t just turn wrenches anymore.”

Bipartisan support and looking to the future 

The Welding Academy’s first four cohorts, in 2023 and 2024, were supported by a $285,000 grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission, a $125,000 grant from Empire State Development, $10,000 from the Workforce Development Institute, and donations from local manufacturers.

The program secured another $200,000 from the NYS 24-25 budget, to do more training programs in Plattsburgh and Rochester. That means at least two more training cohorts in Plattsburgh in 2025.

Padraic Bean says this is something everyone has been able to get behind.

“We have people from the Biden administration, people from the Stefanik administration. Something like this, it transcends politics and it goes deep to the need of the community, no matter where you sit, people need good paying jobs,” said Bean. 

Plenty of demand in Plattsburgh

Thirty-six students have started the Welding Academy, and 36 have graduated. Joel Woods keeps in touch with the graduates and says the vast majority are working locally in welding.

During the Alstom factory tour, General Manager Jeffrey Lambert said the company was looking for another 50 to 60 welders to complete contracts it’s already accepted.

The freshly minted graduates of the Welding Academy are prime candidates for those jobs. Lambert made an offer at the end of the tour.

“Last thing we have on the agenda is for anybody that’s interested in hanging out, Tyler and Clara from HR are available,” said Lambert. “If anybody is interested in having a conversation about any opportunities that we have.”