Path to the trades: Fairbanks teachers, laborers partner for skilled labor education

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - On Friday, Senator Dan Sullivan visited Fairbanks along with “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe to tour the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center (FPTC) and talk about the importance of skilled labor for the individual and for the nation.

In Fairbanks, district schools can provide a pathway for students to study trades, according to Eric Olsen, Welding Instructor at North Pole High School, who added that in Alaska, there are jobs available in a variety of different trades.

“These jobs are generally high-paying jobs, or at least well-paying jobs, and many of them have benefits, pensions, health benefits, beyond just a decent wage,” he said. “The benefit of knowing a trade is using those skills to get a job in that, in said field, and really making a life for yourself in Alaska.”

Olsen pointed to partnerships between the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District and different trade unions around the community, including Plumbers and Pipefitters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Carpenters Union.

“We feed their programs with graduates from our programs, so there’s basically a pretty continuous stream of our students going from our schools into their schools and, after some training, directly into jobs... in the oil and gas industry or any, really, construction jobs locally,” Olsen said.

Hutchison High School Welding Instructor Pete Daley explained that the number of students accepted for instruction by trade unions depends on the need for a given skill.

“A lot of the union trades of skilled apprenticeships usually take anywhere from 10 to 20 apprentices each year, and so it just depends on the need. They don’t want to take too many because if they can’t place them out on job sites, then people are out of work,” he said.

At Friday’s gathering at the FPTC, the facility’s Director Amy Schumacher emphasized safety for trade workers, saying, “At the heart of everything that we do is the individual, the person who walks through our doors looking for an opportunity, a career and a better future. Our responsibility is not only to help them develop the skills to succeed on the job site, but also to make sure that they go home safely to their families every single night.”

In addition to different programs in the school district including the Pipe Welding Academy and Girls Who Weld, Daley explained that the University of Alaska Fairbanks carries welding programs.

Once on the job market, students may see different industries fluctuate in their worker demand depending on which projects are popular.

“If we do kick off the gas line, we are gonna have shortages,” Daley said. “I asked some of my pipe fitter friends and I said, ‘Do you think we have the skilled labor pool in the interior, in the state to fulfill all those job openings?’, and the answer was unequivocally, ‘No. We do not.’”

Generally speaking, however, Daley said those who have been trained for skilled labor are likely to find a job in Fairbanks.

“If you can get out of bed each day, and you can pass a drug test, and you can show up with a good attitude, they will do the rest for you. You just have to have a willingness to learn,” he explained.

“It’s building things,” Olsen said. “It’s the oil and gas industry and the mining industry. Even the fishing industry sees needs for different craft workers in Alaska.”

While engaged in a roundtable discussion with Senator Sullivan and Rowe on Friday, Connor Hajdukovich, Executive Director of the Resource Development Council (RDC) for Alaska, said he has heard from the RDC’s members in the oil and gas, mining, fishing and tourism industries that they need a larger workforce.

“Anecdotally, I don’t know that I go to any one of my members and don’t hear that they have a need that isn’t being filled right now for skilled labor jobs,” he said.

These industries, Daley said, appeal to those who like to work with their hands, and “There’s a sense of pride and dignity knowing that you created something.”

Also at Friday’s event, 3rd-Year Apprentice Josh Klimek with the Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 375 said his interest in the trades was clear when he was a child, and after working a variety of non-union pipefitting jobs, he joined an apprenticeship program.

“While some may think that plumbers and pipe fitters just fix toilets and leaky faucets, it is important to understand that we as a trade also build the pipelines that heat your homes, install the systems that provide clean water, and work in the power plants that provide the electricity that we use every day. This trade offers many different career paths,” Klimek added.

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