Welders Spark Interest in the Trade: At a SkillsUSA Event, Welding Students Compete While Businesses Scout for Talent in a Field That is in Flux. - By Duncan Adams, The Roanoke Times, Va.
During a visit to an amusement park sometime, while screaming through roller coaster corkscrews and loops, take a second to wonder whether one of the welders who helped build the gut-clenching contraption might have had a bad day or two on the job.
That's what Chris Overfelt, an instructor of welding and motorsports technology, tells his students at the Arnold R. Burton Technology Center in Salem.
Two weeks ago, the school was a scene of sparks and torches, steel and heat, leads and beads.
More than 20 welding students from around the region participated that day in a SkillsUSA competition at Burton.