Transforming nonwelders into skilled pipe welders

It’s a typical May evening in Niceville, Fla.—sunny, humid, with a temperature in the mid-80s. Seated next to the window at a cozy waterside restaurant are Scottie Smith and his wife Kim. Not long after the appetizer arrived, Smith reached down into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and looked at his screen before putting it back into his pocket. A few minutes later he repeated this process. Kim didn’t even have to ask who it was or what they wanted—she already knew.

“It’s one of his students,” she said. “They call him every day.”

“She’s right,” Smith said.

For someone who on the first day of each semester at Northwest Florida State College reminds his students that he’s their welding instructor, not their friend or therapist, he has an awful lot of students who call him. “A lot of them are on the road working jobs and they want to tell me about them or run something by me,” Smith explained.

Who can blame them? After all, Smith has taught his students valuable life lessons such as leadership, accountability, work ethic, and responsibility. And if that’s not enough, he’s taught them a craft that provides an excellent living. Not bad considering the fact that the college didn’t even have a welding program before 2013.

“Can I Make It on My Own?”

Smith has been involved with welding in one way or another since he could walk thanks to his father, who taught welding at Southern Union State Community College in Opelika, Ala. After high school Smith enrolled at a community college, but found that his interests didn’t involve academics. Given the choice by his father to either continue his education or get a job, Smith chose neither.

“I actually thought to myself, ‘Well, I’ll show him. I’m going to join the Navy.’ When I told my dad, he said, ‘Do you need a ride to the recruiter?’”

He became a welder while in the Navy and worked on nuclear fast attack submarines and amphibious watercraft. After six years of service, Smith became a firefighter and went back to school at Southern Union State Community College to earn an associate degree and learn more about welding from his dad. From there he went out on the road as a contract welder chasing construction jobs. He met and married Kim and eventually went back to Alabama and opened his own welding and fabrication company.

Business was good until the recession in 2008. He sold the business and began teaching at Southern Union in 2009 after his father had retired. It was an honor to step into his dad’s shoes—the man he refers to as his hero—but it was also daunting. His father was well-known and highly respected in welding circles and was even the recipient of the Howard E. Adkins Instructor Membership Award from the American Welding Society (AWS) in 1999. Scottie carried on his father’s legacy, which was tough considering how influential his dad was at the school and with current and former students.

After about two years Smith was presented with the opportunity to take over the program at West Georgia Technical College in LaGrange, Ga. The instructor there had retired and the program was dying. It had only nine or 10 students during the day and roughly six at night. Smith saw it as a chance to start fresh and make his own way in the world of teaching.

“At Southern Union I was in my dad’s shadow. Everybody knew him, and I wanted to prove that I could do it on my own,” he explained.

It was a good experience that allowed him to cut his teeth and figure out what kind of teacher he wanted to be. He found early on that he wasn’t going to be someone who adjusted the bar to make life easy for anyone.

“I went in on that first day and I said, ‘I’m not your friend, your buddy, or your pal. I’m your welding instructor. Everybody’s got personal issues and problems. Don’t tell them to me, I’m not your therapist. I’m going to teach you how to weld, so leave your personal problems at home. If you do that I will guarantee you that I’ll do everything I can to teach you everything I know about welding.’”

From day 1 Smith demanded total commitment to the welding program, and that hard-line philosophy didn’t sit well with everyone.

“One guy worked second shift and he came to me a little upset and said, ‘I work second shift. I don’t get off until like 10 or 11 p.m., so I’m not going to be coming in to class until 9 a.m. because I need to get some sleep.’ I told him again that we start at 7 a.m. I said, ‘You’re going to come in every day on time or you can leave.’ He argued with me and said he needed a special arrangement. I told him no and to get his butt up and come in to work or go home. It doesn’t matter to me because I’m here. Well, he went home.”

The guys who bought into Smith’s philosophy excelled, so eventually the program did too.

“We expanded to 20 weld booths and we had 18 or so students in the daytime and 12 to 15 at night. We even hired a second instructor for the nighttime. I’d taken a program that was pretty much done and brought it back to life, and that felt good.”

When presented with a new opportunity to start his own welding program from scratch, Smith had the confidence in his abilities necessary for the challenge.

He accepted the position of weld instructor at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Fla., in May 2013. The school was one of five in southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle to receive a $10 million grant, and Northwest Florida State College, along with two other schools, intended to use the money to start welding programs.

He saw it as a chance to really go out on his own.

“Nobody knew me here. It was the perfect place for me to figure out, Can I do it on my own without my dad’s shadow propping me up?”

Starting from Scratch

Since the program was new, Smith had to do everything, from choosing the building and constructing the weld booths to designing a curriculum. It was a tall order, so he kept things small and went with what he knew. He chose a small building that, at the time, was occupied by the fire department and EMT programs. Once they relocated into a new building, Smith had a place all his own. He constructed 15 welding booths pretty much by himself. Other than the weld booths, the building was bare bones. It didn’t even have a bathroom.

And he chose a focus—pipe welding. It’s where a majority of his experience is and he knew that it would give students the best chance to become employable, valuable welders who could make a good living traveling across the country and making a lot of money quickly.

“I know pipe welding, specifically construction pipe welding, which is what I did. It’s where the most job opportunities are, and that’s where they’re making the most money. Look, if my students are going to spend 18 months with me, then they need to be compensated as highly as possible.”
His first class walked through the doors in August 2013. With nothing or no one to compare it to, the students in that first class who bought in excelled, and they were being hired by companies that paid well. They were prepared and disciplined. Word got out, and more prospective students came.

The welding program Smith designed comprises four semesters, two in the fall, one in the spring, and one in the summer. In their first fall semester, it’s all shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). In the spring semester students learn gas metal arc welding (GMAW), flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) of plate. Summer semesters are reserved for SMAW of pipe. In their final fall semester, the focus is reserved for GTAW/SMAW combo pipe welding and welding on specialty pipe, like stainless steel. It’s a lot of material in a short amount of time.

But it’s worth it. Students who pass rigorous training are able to weld according to the AWS D1.1 structural code and ASME B31.1 boiler and pressure vessel welding code.

It goes without saying, then, that the culture revolves around structure. It’s what Smith learned from his father and his time in the Navy, and it’s how he transformed the welding program at West Georgia Tech. The booths are neat, tidy, and organized. The toolroom is well-kept with everything in its place and a clear system for checking out and returning equipment.

And attendance is mandatory.

“The entire program consists of 1,800 contact hours. The first half is 1,050 hours and the second half is 750 hours. We’re not a credit hour program. We’re all about contact hours. If you miss more than 10 percent of your scheduled class time, you fail that class.”

The program grew in popularity so quickly that they decided to admit students not on a first-come/first-served basis, but instead on a point system. Completing the Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) form, having documentation of previous welding experience, and passing a drug test are each worth 20 points. Being a veteran or a dependent of a veteran, visiting the Okaloosa CareerSource Center as well as attending a mandatory orientation are each worth 10 points. And successfully completing general education courses at the college with a C or higher are worth points too. The more credits completed, the more points the student gets.

“Honestly, it’s kind of a screening process. And some of this is a pain in the butt to have to do as much stuff. But by doing this, the students I get are serious. Very rarely do I have somebody that just wants to come in and play around,” Smith said.

In 2017 he added 15 more welding booths, bathrooms, and a classroom. Students collaborated on constructing The Sandlot and The Welder’s Playground. Both installations, located just outside the shop, allow welders to get out of the booth and into the elements and orientations that they’ll experience on the job.

To ensure students learn how to perform under pressure, they must take a weld test every Friday.

“It’s set up just like a weld certification test. I don’t help them with anything. On that day, I’m the inspector. I tell them what I want, the points where I’ll check it, and that’s it. If they mess up, it is what it is. They have to learn that when they go for a job, they’ll get only one shot to do it right.”

Students are so well-prepared that many hire on with companies during the break between the spring and summer terms just to make extra money and gain valuable work experience. Their successes have garnered the attention of big major companies, including JV Industrial Corp. (JVIC), a specialty welding firm with locations out West.

“They have a finishing welding school. They look for new talent to train to their specifications and their welding processes for the oil refineries and chemical plants. So they work with about three schools across the country and ours is one of them. I’ll notify them when I have a graduating class, like in December; they’ll fly an inspector and someone from HR out here; and then we’ll administer a weld test and an evaluation. Then they’ll do an on-site interview for the ones that pass the test and they’ll pick who they want to hire.”

Raising the Bar

Smith has stuck to the philosophy he honed at West Georgia Tech. He doesn’t lower the bar to accommodate anyone or give students a false sense of confidence. The bar is where it’s at for a reason, and it’s up to each student to do the work to meet or exceed it.

“I believe that people will rise to the standard you set. If you demand something tough, most people will work to achieve it. If we don’t have high expectations, we’re letting these students off easy. By the time they come to us, they’re 18 years old. They’re adults. It’s our job to give them the information they need and to make sure they understand the information. From there we must hold them accountable for it.

“This welding program is a life-altering event. When you’re done with this, if you get a job in welding, you’re going to be going from making $300 or $400 a week to $2,500. You’ll have a different lifestyle, and you need to be ready for that, period. I tell them that their top three priorities for the next 18 months are their religion, their family, and this program. If their current job interferes with the welding program, they need to get a different job. This program can change your life and we get real results.”

Current student Alex Dickon—Smith calls him AD for short—had never welded before last August. This past May he was working a shutdown job at a concrete plant in Miami, reinforcing and repairing things with SMAW. He worked 12-hour shifts for seven days a week and banked around $2,600 per week. He never imagined something like this was possible a year earlier.

“I was tired of where I was with my life before, and I wanted to change. I knew I liked working with my hands. I worked at a bar and I would just talk to people and everybody, for some reason, said, ‘You should go for welding.’ So my buddy and I looked into it and finally did it. It’s been the best change that I could have made,” AD explained.

Joel Jaroch, 19, moved to Niceville from Tampa—roughly 400 miles away—just to learn how to weld pipe from Smith.

“He wants you to be the best as you can be. Like, if there’s something small wrong, even if you barely notice it, he’ll tell you about it. Some teachers might let those things slide, but not him. He’s very detail-oriented. If you have any flaws, he’ll want you to perfect them. You can never get it perfect, though. That’s the thing to always improve,” Jaroch said.

Scarlett Quesenberry, 18, fell in love with welding while taking a technical theater class that used GMAW to fabricate sets. She’d never welded pipe before enrolling in the class, but she developed confidence in her abilities because Smith treated her like anyone else.

“He doesn’t treat me any differently than anyone else because I’m a girl. I worked one job where everyone there treated me differently. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t say, ‘No, we’ll have someone else do it.’ He makes me do it so that I learn.”

The Real Reward

It’s late May, and even though the program is currently on break, a handful of students occupy booths, perfecting their technique. The number of people welding surprised even Smith, who “complains” that he has to be at the shop during his break. He’d be there anyway. He knows it, his wife knows it, and his students know it. They know that in real life there are no breaks.
While sitting at his desk, Smith’s phone buzzed. It was a student. He wanted to know if he could come up and weld. Of course, Smith said.

“I mean, they’re not my kids. But I need to check on them. What’s going on? How’s it going with y’all? What’s your foreman like?”

That tough guy that students see on day 1 melts away over the course of the program. They stop seeing him as a drill sergeant and instead recognize that things are the way they are because he cares. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t pick up the phone when they call during odd hours. He wouldn’t be up at the shop during break. He wouldn’t expect the best out of them day in and day out.

“He actually does care,” Quesenberry added. “I’ve seen a lot of the teachers who do only what they have to. He goes above and beyond with everything,”

It’s not about the awards or the accolades, even though Smith has plenty. In 2016 he received the same honor from AWS that his father did 17 years earlier—the Howard E. Adkins Instructor Membership Award.

For him, it’s really about giving people the tools to transform their lives for the better.

“Seeing welding change somebody’s life, that’s the reward. That’s why I do it. To see somebody come in who is making only $300 a week and see welding change their life to where they are financially stable and can have a career, buy the toys, buy the house, and provide for their families, that’s the payoff. That’s the best reason I do what I do.”

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