Going green is a term that has been thrown around. But it’s not just a phrase anymore; it’s becoming its own job field.
Despite the economy being in the gutter and students spending thousands of dollars a year at colleges, a new job market is on the rise — and already in Monroe.
In 2008, Ventower Industries was founded and on Aug. 9 this year they came to the Port of Monroe.
“Ventower Industries is a full service fabricator and supplier of utility scale, wind turbine towers,” Ventower’s website states.
This means jobs for future welding graduates.
“Ventower has stated that they would consider hiring students from the program,” said Joe Czapiewski, MCCC’s Welding Grant Coordinator.
Ventower isn’t your average welding job, though; the company requires further training after what the college offers.
“Ventower uses submerged arc welding, a process we do not teach at the college at the present time,” Czapiewski said. “Justin Schmidt, the Welding Grant Instructor certified welding inspector/certified welding educator, has been trained by Lincoln Electric on this process.”
The problem that emerges with Ventower’s special technique is that the college can’t afford to teach it.
“The grant money cannot be used to purchase that equipment, which is expensive,” Czapiewski said.
Even though the college can’t afford to teach it, Ventower doesn’t require sub arc welding experience; they only label it as a nice to have, according to Ventower’s website.
“The class meets the minimum requirement for employment at Ventower,” Czapiewski said.
This means good things for welding students, especially students of the newly stated accelerated welding program.
Ventower is excited about its move to the Port of Monroe.
“I am grateful for the commitment and the efforts of our shareholders, employees, contractors and the unwavering support of our economic development and training partners who contributed to building this state of the art facility,” said President /CEO Gregory Adanin.
“It is and always has been our goal to become an integral part of the industry supply chain and be part of advanced wind energy component manufacturing, education and innovation,” he said.
