MILTON — On Monday March 10, the Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB) hosted 10 teenagers from the Liberty For Youth program at their headquarters in Milton, Ontario, with the aim of promoting welding as a career.

Liberty for Youth, which was founded 10 years ago by Frederick Dryden, is a program that seeks to help at-risk youth in the Hamilton, ontario area.

The event began with CWB Director Dan Tadic going through a short slideshow, and explaining to the teens some of the different types of welding, and some of the potential career opportunities in the field.

“Welding is one of those amazing careers,” Tadic told the audience of teenagers. “You can do so many incredible things with this technology.”

“Welding is portable. You can work here, you can work in British Columbia, you can work in another part of the world,” Tadic continued.

And according to CWB figures, welding is also a well-paying gig. Citing statistics, Tadic said starting salaries are typically $85,000 per year. He also highlighted some of the more unique types of welding that can lead to even more lucrative payouts such underwater welding and welding for the mining industry.

After the presentation, students were given the opportunity to try their hand at welding on one of Lincoln Electric’s VRTEX virtual welding simulators, which was donated to the CWB to use as a teaching tool. They were also shown other metal fabrication techniques, such as waterjet cutting.

The opportunity to try out a simulator left a number of students intrigued.

One of the grade 10 students, Noah, who knew nothing about welding before the event came away with a very different perception of it.

“It was pretty good… I didn’t have any idea how much money I could make, and if I did make that much, I wouldn’t know what to do with it!” he said.

“I’m at Delta’s Woodview program, and they’ve got an auto shop, so I want to try going into (that).”

The CWB has also agreed to help fund scholarships through the Liberty for Youth program for kids interested in pursuing the trade — something Dryden thinks will have a big impact on the success of the program.

“It was a win-win for us as a foundation. We came and did a tour, and this is (going to be) the first field trip of many,” he said.

“I think these kids have an inclination for trades. But what we really want them to do is explore. (Welding) is one trade out of many. So we’re not going to be bias… it could lead towards something else.

“Anything connected to exploration and education is very important to us.”

CWB Director, Dan Tadic, explains various fabricating processes to the Liberty for Youth group.