Our newest Rosie is Judy Enz of Olympia, Washington where she is a welder and welding instructor with over 30 years of experience, and now proud owner of Arc Masters School of Welding.

While on the surface starting a business in a not-so-welcoming economy may not seem like a good idea, Judy says, “Right now education is at a record high. The schools are packed and there are two-year waiting lists to get into the welding programs.” And so Judy’s school will be there to pick up the slack. “I want everybody who wants to learn to have the opportunity even if it is just enough to build your own BBQ!” she adds.

I conducted the interview over several emails– Judy keeps pretty busy with her new business, including participating on a radio program. The panel discussion, on Women in Non Traditional Jobs, was originally broadcast on July 28, 2010 for the Voices of Diversity on Community Radio KBCS 91.3 FM in Seattle. http://www.kbcs.fm

Decades ago, women were confined to very specific gender roles and occupations. Today, women are seen working in a variety of careers that in the past were completely occupied by men. So, on today’s Voices of Diversity, a status check on gender equality in the workplace. Do women still face barriers to certain professions and challenges when they decide to enter a career field that in the past has shut them out?
Host: Kevin Henry.  [Listen Online]

Here’s what she had to say in response to my questions:

What got you interested in welding?
A private welding school opened in town and friends said I should check it out since I was looking for a career. I put on a welding helmet and never looked back!

(more…)

You probably know by now that Arc-Zone.com has done some videos. My favorite is the Welcome To Arc-Zone video… we had a lot of fun with that one:

You can watch these on YouTube, or we have our very own Arc-Zone TV channel.

Well, we’re gearing up to do another round and have a lot of ideas for How Tos, but we’d like to hear from you! Take the poll, and / or add your ideas in the comment section of this post!

A special shout out to Becky at Lincoln Electric for sending me this link…  she knows this is an area of special interest to me (as do all of you who read this website on a regular basis).  I’ve been doing a bit of research myself lately and was disheartened to learn that according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics the percentage of women working in the welding industry has actually declined– it is now LOWER than the 6% I’ve been quoting.

Anyway, check out this program geared towards getting women interested in careers in the male dominated trades– like welding!  and let me know if your workplace or school has a special outreach program. I’d love to share your stories!

Ladies Night entices female students to male-heavy careers

by Neal Morton, The Monitor

McALLEN — Elizabeth Robertson understands why manufacturing, welding or plumbing don’t exactly sound like expected career choices for women.

“Usually they’re pushed to teaching or nursing,” the 28-year-old said. “It’s typical to think of men going out and working their tools.”

A mechanical engineering student, though, Robertson embodied the evolving gender makeup of technology jobs when she attended South Texas College’s Ladies Night on Wednesday.

CONTINUE READING AT THE MONITOR–>

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at work before!  This guy has a gift – if not for welding, then definitely for writing!

Attempting to weld in the age of duct tape

Al Batt, Tales from Exit 22
Published Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I don’t like to wear socks.

I wear them but I don’t like it.

I consider socks to be a fire hazard.

I took a welding class at a college that once thrived in Waseca.

It wasn’t my idea. It was my employer’s idea. He felt that the duct tape I used wasn’t as strong as a weld. He was annoyingly conscientious. Welding started during the Bronze Age, and it survives into the Duct Tape Age. I went to college during the day and worked nights. The welding class gave me something to fill those hours that I had been wasting on sleep.

My father had taught me how to weld with a derelict welder he had rescued from a junkyard. It was a serious stapler that performed basic farm welding with little attention paid to aesthetics.

On the farm, I welded broken wagon tongues and tractor hitches. I gave up welding once I quit breaking wagon tongues and tractor hitches.

I would have been happy not knowing anything more about welding. Welding isn’t even an Olympic event. It could be in the Winter Olympics. Replacing the brooms with welders would make curling a little more exciting.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

A new program on the Lummi Reservation is offering the equivalent of full scholarships to ten aspiring Native American welders for an intense 16 week welding course.  They qualify as second-year union apprentices at the end of it!

New program teaches welding to Native Americans
JOHN STARK – THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

LUMMI RESERVATION – Ten Native American men are getting an intensive course in welding that they hope will enable them to get better jobs, even in a sluggish economy.

The students train 10 hours a day, six days a week for 16 weeks, under a program through a new partnership among the U.S. Department of Interior, Lummi Indian Business Council, United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, and Native American Fabricators Welding School, a private welding school that operates on Lummi Reservation.

Art George, a welder and former chairman of Nooksack Tribe, started the school in 2008 with his wife, Rebecca.

He said the demand for trained welders remains brisk at refineries, boat builders, construction sites and shipyards as the older generation of welders retires.

Students who complete the intensive program qualify for hiring as second-year union apprentices, with pay starting at about $20 an hour.

After four years, they could qualify for journeyman welder status and make more than twice that, George said.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Geography quiz time!  Where is Guernsey?  I’ll give you a hint: it’s one of the Channel Islands (and no, we’re not talking about the ones off the coast of California…)

Give up?  Here you go: Guernsey.  How’s that for an exotic locale?  And what do ya know – there are welders there too!

Challenging the world’s welders

A group of apprentices from the College of Further Education are challenging the best welders in the world.

Three fourth year students hope their welding skills will allow them to reach the world final of the SkillWeld competition in London in 2011.

Guernsey man James Le Lievre was a UK finalist in the contest in 2008.

John Semenowicz, the programme manager for engineering at the college, said: “We’re talking about students in the premier league of welding.”

The Channel Island heat of the SkillWeld competition took place at the College of FE’s workshop in March 2010 as Guernsey’s three entrants became part of the 170 from across the UK who are competing.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Nick Coleman is a horseman at heart, but after this latest welding project for an AG class, who knows?  Welding just might have to come first, after all.

CHS sophomore may turn from horse training to welding

By Pete Kendall/reporter@trcle.com
February 12, 2010

It’s understandably spooky mounting a horse that’s never been ridden.

The rider can’t know exactly what the horse is going to do — smile, frown or say, “If you raise your voice to me one more time, I’ll buck you into Bosque County.”

That’s what almost happened to young horseman Nick Coleman.

“At first, I was nervous,” the Cleburne High sophomore said. “When I’d first get on a horse, I’d be holding the saddle horn. But if you do enough ground work on them, they shouldn’t buck. They might, but ground work really pays off.

“I had one last year throw me into a metal pipe fence. The guy who was helping me on the ground let go of the lead rope. My leg wasn’t all the way in the saddle. I came off and flew into a fence. The way Ron [Richmond, boss] and I do it, one of us is on the horse and the other is on the ground with the lead rope. If the horse starts bucking, the one with the lead rope pulls [the horse] around.”

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

Who’s to say what jobs are “normal” for women to have and what aren’t?  So what if they’re “non-traditional”?

Once upon it was neither “normal” nor “traditional” for women to even wear pants, and look where that’s got us!  You go girls!

Looking for “non-traditional” work

Posted: Feb 17, 2010 2:42 PM PST
By Heather Sawaski

WAUSAU (WAOW) — Jobs in the trade industry took a hard hit during the economic downturn. But experts predict job creation to pick up soon, especially for workers in “non-traditional” roles.

A program at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau is designed to help get students past the stereotype. The Non-Traditional Occupations Program at NTC helps students achieve success in roles typically filled by the opposite gender.

Brenda Cichon is welding student at NTC. She enrolled in the program with her husband after they were both laid off last year.

“The government is helping us by funding us and paying for us to go back to school,” she explained. “So we were happy to come back to NTC and join a program that was good for both of us.”

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

I want to steal the name of her blog.  Seriously.

This is a fantastic look into the workings of a women welder’s mind written by Wendy Welder.  Perhaps she is related to our good friend, Joe Welder??

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2010

How it all started.
Even as a little girl, I had dirt under my fingernails and grease smeared across my face. I grew up in the garage, at the shop, out in the yards with my Dad. Dad worked in tire retread and his hobby was cars, so I saw a lot of cars, a lot of trucks and a lot of men in my childhood.

Weekends were spent at the race track or at car shows. Dad raced a 1972 Nova before I was born, and I think everytime we went to the track he wished it was him out there. It wasn’t long before I wished it was me.

My first car was a Chevy Nova. I drove it everywhere, and I loved it like it was my child. But, it was my first car, and I was just learning how to take care of it and how everything worked. My parents always reminded me to check the oil and I always forgot. When the engine blew, Dad made ME replace it. (Of course he helped) And while I had always been around when he worked on cars, seeing the daylight through the hole in the block where the rod had flown through, and the whole process of the replacement, the sense of accomplishment when the car was up and running again, made me love that car even more and made me want to spend the rest of my life around cars.

CONTINUE READING ONLINE ->

It was a fun night for me at the monthly American Welding Society — San Diego Section meeting.  This night’s topic?  Induction heating with a system unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

Gone are the days of waiting hours and hours for your length of pipe to warm up to the right temperature –

Miller has just released the new ProHeat 35 Induction Heating System, which works by inducing heat electromagnetically, rather than via a conductor, thus saving the operator incredible amounts of time and energy.

Simply wrap the induction coils around whatever piece of metal you’re working on, and in just a few minutes, you’re ready to go!

This picture was taken looking inside the length of pipe that was being heated up by the ProHeat 35 — you can’t see it here, but that tube was glowing red hot on the inside!

And even better, when I tried touching the coils wrapped around it?
Cold as ice! This product is simply amazing!

But perhaps the best part about this whole new system is that you don’t even have to buy it! Red-D-Arc will rent out one of their machines to you for as long as you need!