Tim Harty, The Business Times

Shane Barber knows how hard it is to find welders to hire, because it’s his job to scout and hire them for Denver-based RK Steel, a fast-growing company that does three things: modularized construction; building erection; and manufacturing multi-trade racks.

“I’m hiring welders all across the U.S., and so I’ve been scouting. I hired 100 last year, 120 this year. Next year, I’m sure I’ll need another 150,” Barber said.

There is, however, a rather monumental obstacle to overcome in supplying RK Steel with welders. It isn’t the only company who wants them, and Barber said the top three jobs in the United States for scarcity of labor includes – you guessed it – welders.

So, Barber goes to trade schools looking to establish partnerships with them in hopes a pipeline of welders can be established. That’s what brought him to Grand Junction, specifically Colorado Mesa University Tech, on Sept. 15. CMU Tech has a welding program that produces people who will one day be seeking jobs as welders. RK Steel has a seemingly never-ending need for welders.

And now the school and the company have a partnership that stands to benefit each greatly, which CMU President John Marshall and Barber announced that day during an event on the CMU Tech campus.

CMU Tech has many existing partnerships, most of them local, so another industry partnership is nothing new. But it is a noteworthy addition that Marshall feels good about “because RK is a big outfit, and they’ve got a lot of divisions that potentially map to our programs.”

He added, “The hope is that this pilot grows into electricians and plumbers and HVAC mechanical, and that as we continue to grow our footprint, every single student that comes through the door has an opportunity for an apprenticeship, an internship, and ultimately a great job that they can support a family, and they can build a career around.”

Partnering with RK Steel also serves as a recruiting tool, as the likelihood of a job post-graduation is a powerful reason to choose CMU Tech’s welding program.

Barber said he approached CMU Tech about a partnership for welding, like he has done with many other trade schools in Colorado. But he got a much warmer reception from CMU Tech and appreciated its enthusiasm and willingness to tailor some of the welding curriculum to directly correlate with the type of welding RK Steel needs.

That was refreshing, because Barber said some of the other schools he approached wanted nothing to do with accommodating RK Steel’s needs in its curriculum.

He said some of those programs produce graduates who “don’t know how to read a weld symbol. They’ve never run on the equipment we run. They don’t get trained on the processes that we run, and they were very rigid.”

So, Barber said he offers them: “Hey, let us help adapt that curriculum.” And he gets a response of: “No, we’re fine. We know what we’re doing here.”

Barber added, “And most of the welding, tech schools are marketing towards pipeline, oil, very different culture, not one that works in a manufacturing facility. And so I wanted to find a school that would allow us to reach in, partner, build that curriculum.”

That’s CMU Tech.

“Part of that curriculum is building good work habits, attendance habits, policies, and so this is greater than just weld specifications,” Barber said. “It’s gonna be a program where we’re gonna take our policies and guidelines, infuse them in with their policy guidelines for students, and my hope is they transition them like a new hire.”

After Marshall and Barber addressed a sizable audience of CMU Tech students, Barber fielded questions, addressing such things as:

• What the work entails. Figure working 50 hours per week minimum, and the average last year was 57.5 hours per week.
• How much RK Steel pays welders. They start at about $26 per hour and go up to about $48 per hour. “That kind of rate with overtime, it’s more than competitive,” Barber said.
• The benefits it provides. Barber said they’re good, because they have to be. “We have to pay top tier to recruit folks. … We try to give as much benefits as we can at the lowest cost to the welder. 

… You’ve got to be competitive. If you’re not, you’re not competitive in the industry.”

• It offers internships. One of the members of the audience, Owen Slater, a CMU mechanical engineering student, had an internship as a modular assembler with RK Steel this past summer, and that was before the partnership with CMU Tech was formed. Barber asked him how it went, and Slater said, “It was honestly a great experience.”
• It has apprentice programs.
• RK Steel needs and hires other trades, such as HVAC and electricians, or as Barber calls the latter, “sparkies.”

Slater further addressed his internship with RK Steel, saying it provided the kind of in-field experience he sought, the kind of experience every student should be seeking. Slater also respected that RK Steel respected him. He wasn’t a throw-away intern. He wasn’t treated like he was less than the veteran welders.

“They wanted your input,” Slater said. “They wanted to know what’s going on on the shop floor, or just if you needed help with anything. They communicated very well, made sure you have everything you need, and they made it extremely easy to go talk to the upper people in the company.

“And it was just an overall great experience to work with new people, get the good in-field experience that you want to be gathering.”