The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 222 with Adam Stead and Max Ceron
The CWB Association had the privilege to attend the Skills Canada New Brunswick Provincial Competition in Saint John, NB. Join us as we bring you special episodes recorded in person to advocate for careers in skilled trades and technology across the country.
What happens when football dreams transform into a welding career? In this captivating conversation, Adam Stead reveals his remarkable journey from athlete to welding professional to his current role as Technical Education Specialist with the CWB Welding Foundation. The Maritime welding landscape offers more opportunities than many realize. Adam dismantles the misconception that East Coast welders must head west for work, explaining how regional industries like shipbuilding, pipe fitting, and structural steel provide solid careers.
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All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast. Pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin.
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Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Chiron and I am here in beautiful New Brunswick, the city of St John, for Atlantic Skills competition. This week there's going to be a number of trades going on competition mode to find out who's the best to go to nationals, and this is a qualifying year for Worlds for Shanghai, china. One of the fantastic things about doing these competitions is meeting the great people who are here that work so hard in a variety of different jobs, and one of them that we have here, who is a part of the CWB Foundation. Now is Adam Stead. Adam, how are you doing? Thanks for having me Doing great.
Speaker 2:Doing great.
Speaker 1:You tired, not yet I have a whole other day of this, so let's start real quick with what your role is here at Skills.
Speaker 2:So here at Skills I'm an NTC for New Brunswick, so I've been that position since 2015. So we're on our 10th year and basically I help get the drawings ready, the rubrics ready, get the judges lined up, and then the day of the event, I help the event run along. So this event, we have sponsors. So I work with Miller Welding, I work with Hobart Fillers and just ensure that everything's running smoothly and that we're basically mimicking what we do at Nationals. So when you go to Nationals, you've already kind of done the precursor. Now you're into the to the represent your province at the national level.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's over a few days here, so how did the days break down?
Speaker 2:So we, we arrived yesterday, we set everything up, make sure all the machines run, the gas is good, no, no, no issues there. Filler metal is ready, tungsten sharpened, that sort of thing, and then when we hit this morning, your material is in your booth, your machine's ready to roll, we have the drawings ready, the rubrics are ready, the judges are showing up. So everything is kind of already pre-set and, as you know, the more you do this, the better it flows and the more fluid it is.
Speaker 1:Every year, it's just yeah. And then today, I believe, was post-secondary today's post-secondary, so we've had 12 competitors all over New Brunswick. I heard there was 13, but somebody unfortunately dropped out at the last minute.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, and he was. I think he was going to be one of the good ones too yeah, so it's too bad.
Speaker 1:Hopefully they're young enough they can go next year. Next year Exactly, and then tomorrow is going to be interesting too, because they'll be real nervous. Yeah, yeah, they're very nervous.
Speaker 2:So we take a little bit more precaution with them. We kind of go over the symbols and make sure they really understand how it's going to go together and kind of reassure them that it's going to be okay, and that makes sure they know where they're going to put the weld in the yeah we help them just a little bit more, All right?
Speaker 1:Well, let's back up now and talk about you. You know in terms of where you come from and your role, so are you a local here to New Brunswick.
Speaker 2:So I am. I'm originally from Newfoundland. We moved here in 92. So I've lived in New Brunswick since 1992.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a young man because you're quite a bit younger than me, I think yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, turning gray though.
Speaker 1:No, I'm already there, man. I'm already gray land. I'm Santa Claus. Someone call me Santa. You called me Santa today. Jeez Guilty.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, how did you get into the welding field?
Speaker 2:Because when I first met you, you know, it was a while ago, a few years ago now.
Speaker 1:You know you were in a very different role than what you are now, so walk us through your career.
Speaker 2:So I was an athlete before pursuing the football career that everybody thinks they're going to make. And then then I said, hey, I got to go back to back to New Brunswick and take a trade. So my father's a railroader and my family's tradesmen, so it kind of was like hey, there's jobs here, I have to pursue this. And that was about the same time that there's a lot of welders needed at West.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the word was out we need welders. So I took a one-year program, loved it From there, got a job locally in Moncton.
Speaker 1:Where did you take the one-year program?
Speaker 2:NBCC here in.
Speaker 1:St Andrews, New Brunswick Okay, cool.
Speaker 2:Awesome, yep. And from there got a job local in Moncton doing some structural. That worked into a machine shop, that worked into a little bit of a nuclear shop in Fredericton, new Brunswick, and from there moved back to Moncton, got in with a sprinkler fitter outfit called Troy Life and Fire Welded pipe with those guys for about nine years before going to the college to teach welding. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now in that time, you know, like you talked about going out West. It's something I've talked about in the other podcast here. Because there's a misconception I find the more I've learned about the Maritimes, the more I come out here to know the Atlantic provinces. As a Westerner myself, you know I come from Saskatchewan. I've done a lot of my work out West and we never, ever had like the inclination out West to go East. You know, and it was always this idea, that every May the planes would show up from the East coast and you'd have the Newfoundlanders and Nova Scotians, the New Brunswick, pei. They'd be coming out and there'd be planes full of them, of trades people for shutdown season. Whether you're an oil and gas out in Alberta or you're in the mining industry in Saskatchewan, we'd be bringing in all the travel cards.
Speaker 1:Now in that, in that world, I had a misconception that there wasn't work out here. Right, and perhaps that was wrong, because the more people I meet out here, the more people I know they've had wonderful careers out here and there seems to be lots of industry. You know so from your position, you know you kind of have tasted, you know, drank the water in a few places. How do you feel about the industry here in the Atlantic provinces?
Speaker 2:It's up and down. That's where you see the wave that would go out west and Newfoundland even. They would even go even more east.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it kind of. It kind of hits and misses. We did have a large structural steel community back when I first started. There was a lot more. A lot of those have gone down, it's just the larger ones Just construction stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:So a lot of of of structural steel now with the ship building, with the pipefitters, with the pipefitters, with the refinery boilermakers. In the refinery there's the iron workers. So there is a lot of industry still around and you don't hear it as much. You don't hear a lot of the going out west as you used to, yeah, and basically I think they're just looking for a higher wage is kind of what it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it wasn't so much that there wasn't the work here it was just a better pay. Yep, it was just a better pay, which is something that still exists. You know, like when I travel, you know I would say it pays a little bit better here than perhaps places in Ontario. But you know, when I travel through Ontario I can really see a large difference in the pay discrepancies from West to Central and Eastern Canada. I wonder why that is. I've never really been able to figure that out.
Speaker 2:To me, I think it's more of the process too. If you're getting more, uh, manufacturing, sometimes the manufacturing. There's so many guys in that world that I think it's kind of watered down a little, so maybe that's what it is. There's so many people where you get more specialized. Maybe you got a pipe ticket, maybe you can go to here. Maybe you're working Some stainless or whatever there's something a little more. You're going to get a little more. So I think in those central maybe it's a little more manufacturing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and your career you know, like you said, that you came back from your desire to be a professional athlete.
Speaker 2:What position did you play? Offensive line, you an offensive line.
Speaker 3:I was a little, a little.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're about 100 pounds short. So you came back, you know, and you decided to get into the trades and take this one year program. Was that process, you know, difficult at all? Was it easy to get into welding out here?
Speaker 2:I think since I got into the higher level of football it kind of gave me that discipline to be to be in the booth working towards my goal, which was like a pipe ticket at the time. Get that diploma and then you have to start making some money. So at that point it's you gotta get moving and I was just fortunate enough that I had good connections to get good jobs. That kind of kind of propel me in my career.
Speaker 1:And then when you were working with the sprinkler fitting company, you know you're doing a lot of small diameter pipe. I assume right Like lots and lots of small diameter pipe. What was your desire at that point in your career? You know when you were looking forward into your future. Did you see yourself getting into these type of jobs, or were you content with welding?
Speaker 2:Were you content with welding? No, I was happy with welding, like uh. So I had met a colleague of mine at uh the nuclear shop and he said, hey my, my cousin has this pipe shop, so plus their union job. So I was like, so I get in with the UA.
Speaker 2:So I had a great pension home every night, we traveled, but we worked hard, so we had the weekends off and it was just a good career. My boss was awesome. He's here today Troy, life and Fire they're big sponsors of Skills Canada and, yeah, he always pushed me to go, go, get that ticket and make sure you keep your career up. So when the opportunity came to leave him, I really didn't want to do it and it was heartbreaking. But he said no, you're right, you're ready to go to your next step in your career.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that was into teaching, into teaching, yeah, yeah. And how did that transition happen?
Speaker 2:So, if we back the truck up a little, I'm married to a teacher and my mother's a teacher, so I kind of had that that teacher, in me, the blood of a teacher, yeah, and I had a really good teacher. He's still teaching in NBCC in Moncton so he was my mentor. So it was kind of cool I got to go work with him Not John.
Speaker 1:Uh, no, no, no definitely not.
Speaker 2:No, no.
Speaker 3:Louis LeBlanc shout out.
Speaker 2:Louis LeBlanc yeah, he's awesome dude and uh, so yeah, so he was going to take me under his wing. Kind of, show me the ropes, get me into it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it was natural. And did? They come knocking?
Speaker 2:Well, at that time, like I said, the waves of construction in the Maritimes was getting slow at that time. So, uh, um, the pipe fitting was a little bit slow. So I said, well, I'm going to go get a more pressure ticket and go out West as well as my plan was. And then through there. Uh, when I was in practicing for a test, louie said hey, drop a resume off. I think you with us, so perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good timing. How did you feel about that transition? It's, it's a very different beast.
Speaker 2:There was a lot of planning, a lot of late nights to start.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But once you get into, you know Utah, it's just, you can walk in without a book at the end of it, Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you miss the students?
Speaker 2:I do. But my new role is awesome because I get to work with students again with our camps or also teaching high school teachers with our educator training. So I feel like I'm I'm a foot back in education.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Now, how long were you in the college? I was there for eight years. Eight years, yep, yep, that's a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I taught a pre-employment program for about five years and then I transitioned into apprenticeship for the last three and I just love the apprenticeship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I was just talking to someone about how much they enjoy teaching apprenticeship more than the pre-em. I enjoyed both, but I get it Cause. I, I my favorite class to teach if I had to teach one is level three. Yes, Right, Like I mean I loved getting them ready for that for the JP exam.
Speaker 3:I love that's where all the stress is.
Speaker 1:That's where you really hit the trenches, you know no, and you become like a team with your class Cause. It's like nobody wants to see anyone fail. No, Everyone in that group is rooting for each other, you know.
Speaker 2:And it's, it's, it's so rewarding to like even being here today. I see them, and they got a new house, they got a new truck. Now they got a baby, so like we kind of helped them along their career too, which is awesome. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 1:So when? Why leave? You know, like I mean I I'm. I went to CWB from college, right? I got the call For me it was a COVID choice, right, covid happened and we all got sent home at the college and told to wait. I'm not very good at waiting, Right, I'm a very impatient man, yeah.
Speaker 2:Mine's very similar, right.
Speaker 1:So then, basically, you know, cwb had an opportunity and I decided to take it. I mean, it was, to be honest, a bit of a pay cut, but it was. It was very, I guess, in line with what I wanted to keep progressing in terms of my career. Right For yourself, what was the deciding factor that go from? From teaching, because you know, getting those long tenured teaching jobs is also not easy. No, some people wait their whole lives to get a teaching job in a college and they can't get it.
Speaker 2:Right, right, uh, no same thing for COVID. The numbers started to get down a little. Uh, it wasn't as much apprenticeship coming in and uh, I have a great wife. She's a high school teacher, like I mentioned. So she kind of guided me. She'd say, hey, you can go try something else, like it's okay, it's okay to do that. And I did it and I loved it. I was like it. It's just as rewarding as as when I was teaching.
Speaker 2:So uh so yeah, I think it was a great transition, just like I said, a next step in your career.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's all.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then so uh, uh. I always volunteered whenever the CWB foundation would come around. Uh.
Speaker 1:That was going to be my next question.
Speaker 2:Or or or give grants in the community, I would go volunteer and try to help these teachers get their programs going. So I kept connected with the CWB through, uh, through Josh at the foundation and uh, yeah, he brought me this wonderful opportunity. So, yeah, Well it's.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because you don't exist in the welding sphere without knowing the CWB.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right. And, and you know I was talking to some of the UA guys this morning and uh, in my previous lifetime as a full-time welder out West there's almost a dislike or a distaste of the CWB. You know, they're like the invigilators they can, they can ruin your career if you fail some tests on you. Could. You know they're the inspectors that have all the rules and regulations, not that they don't exist for everyone else, but you just you know it's like the man right, right.
Speaker 1:And when I got the opportunity to work for CWB it was kind of a double edged sword for me. I was like, you know, do I go work for this place? That I kind of, you know, didn't love as a welder. But then as a teacher, I started to get an appreciation of the CWB because I didn't know that whole other side. I didn't know about the foundation, I didn't know. Well, the foundation's about 12 years old now, I think, around there, and so, like I mean, these things have been created in the last decade or so, but the associations have been around for over a hundred years. My dad was a part of the CWB association. Well, back then it was WIC, the Welding Institute of Canada, and I've been volunteering since the early 2000s to try to understand this whole other side of the business of the CWB. Now when I got offered a job here I was like can I, can I do good, can I bring change to CWB? Can I, can I bring my flavor of industry?
Speaker 1:Because, like yourself, you're a welder first, you know, you're a trades person, an educator, so you got some beefs in your mind that you're like. I can hopefully fix these beefs.
Speaker 3:Right it's true, yep.
Speaker 1:And like how much of that did you bring into the job when you got that first opportunity to come to CWB?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me it was like the opportunity to kind of keep the accreditation going and keep the certification going. So for these students, when they leave they don't just have a diploma Now they have a ticket. So maybe they could get a job in a shop that they didn't know they were going to get and kind of help push them towards maybe getting into inspection. Maybe they didn't know, they're not really a great welder and they're like, hey, well, maybe I could get into the inspection.
Speaker 1:What's weld adjacent? I love that term Right.
Speaker 2:And I have a lot of students reach out now they're like okay, adam works with CWB, how do I get my level one? How do I get that supervisor? So it's nice to take the past and kind of help it with what I can now.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I just had a mechanic come up to me today and said is there work at CWB for mechanics? And I said, well, not directly, but I'm not going to say no, because there's CSR job and you can kind of just come in off the street for those. And he's like, well, how do they pay? And I actually didn't know. I looked it up at 28 to $35 an hour. Yeah, that's not bad. No, no.
Speaker 2:It's a very busy career. Keeps you like, if you want to be busy. Csrs are busy. I know that, yeah, yeah, Everywhere they're on the ground for us, everywhere, it says part-time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but part-time sounds like full-time. I think that's always leading to full-time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now you came in to work with the CWB Welding Foundation. Yes, which is a little bit different, because I know you have volunteered with the association as as the foundation being a kind of a newer entity within the CWB, what was your relationship with them prior to working?
Speaker 2:So prior to working with them was it was actually originally with Andrew Bartlett.
Speaker 3:Right when.
Speaker 2:Andrew was on board and he was working with a gentleman in New Brunswick called Brian Gray and they were kind of trying to get welding back in these classrooms, which was awesome.
Speaker 3:Where were the t-shirts from back then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah the old, yeah, yeah, the old symbols with the CWA Yep.
Speaker 2:And uh, so yeah, those two were pushing it and my boss at the college said hey, Adam, I know you love volunteering at these high schools. Why don't you partner with these guys? They're going to teach high school teachers in the summer. That's how I kind of got in as a teacher through NBCC. So I'd open the door to our campus and we'd house 30 teachers every summer for a week and kind of just get into introduction to stick, introduction to wire, and then by the end they kind of left with a couple of tickets, which was awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they still.
Speaker 2:We're still connected to this day.
Speaker 1:It's one of the biggest requests I get in passing is from high school teachers being like hey, you guys ran that course a few years back. When are you going to do it again? There's so much value in that because you want to talk about heroes. Talk to a high school shop teacher Like no funding, no money, no resources, no training, and they got to get out there and do this and have expectations from their students.
Speaker 2:That's a tough gig and they're go-getters. They're pushing Like I know I was in PEI about a month ago and looking to get their shops accredited. They want to get their students to get a ticket. So there's that continuation. So through the foundation we're building some next level to those educator training. So if you want to get more into fabricating or into testing or that sort of thing, we're working on a lot more of that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Did you ever work with any of the camps?
Speaker 2:I have. I worked with a Mind Over Metal camp and an Arcs and Sparks camp.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's new to me, I'm just learning. So part of my role is I kind of get these under my wing and I'm kind of the program coordinator for those.
Speaker 3:And then I get to go go this, go, work them Go work them and meet these people, which is awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now there's a lot of welding colleges out here, you know, for for the population and for the geography size, I'm always surprised at how well-suited the college is. Out here Between NSCC and NBCC there's multiple campuses with multiple welding labs, including WET programs which aren't offered in all of Canada, and you really see a growth and expansion of the colleges out here for welding. Why do you think that is? Historically this isn't when they, you know, historically this isn't seen as a welding hub, but it kind of is when you come out here.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a lot of that.
Speaker 2:You don't have to stay here either, so a lot of them will leave like you said, or or travel or that sort of thing, and I always like to say that it's always a step into the trades. Just because you take a welding course doesn't mean you're going to become a welder, and I always say that to my students. Like that gets your foot in the door. Now the employer knows that you can work with your hands, you have some math skills, some blueprint skills, so I think it's development wise. It's a great first step into any type of career. If it's a automotive mechanic or or plumbing, you name it, yeah, but for the numbers I don't know. There is quite a few, you're right, yeah, yeah. And well, well outfitted shops too. That's the thing.
Speaker 1:Like they're looking at. You're looking at some pretty good sized shops.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I remember when NSCC had their grand opening of their new shop it doesn't seem like that long ago, it's got to be 10 years now, though, right and I remember coming out here and seeing like they had a robot welding out front and all this stuff, and I was like, wow, what's going on out here in the Maritimes? Man, you think it's the industry, because I mean, you got Irving, you got the refinery I think the largest in Canada where North America fits not and so there's a lot of full-time maintenance work that could happen around here, right yeah?
Speaker 2:And structural shops. Like I said, a lot of larger structural shops and sending a lot of product all over the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and in my year in sales I get to go out and meet these people and see where these products go. Some of the products we have built in the Maritime is just amazing.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about your stint in sales.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:How'd that go? What happened it?
Speaker 2:went great I was. I was hired on through through a friend of mine. He's a manager at the Source Atlantic. So I became a welding specialist and took over Atlantic Canada and I had 32 outside sales guys. So I kind of I wasn't directly a sales guy, but I was the welding guy.
Speaker 2:So I would go in and talk to people like you and you'd say, hey, okay, there's a welding guy, he can talk my language. What does he want? Kind of drop this down, get down quick, this is what he wants. You know what I mean. So they they really relate with somebody that can speak our language. I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that, that was. That's exactly what I was hoping he'd say because, it leads right into.
Speaker 1:Like this weld adjacent thing that I've been talking about Came up in one of the podcasts already. I did today because you know it's. You can have 12 students come in and they're all welding students. You know three or four of them are going to be amazing welders. That'll just run with it. Three or four might get it and get all of it but just might lack the, the hand eye skills. But there's so many weld adjacent careers and suppliers is one of them. You look at the big ones like I know messer just took, like I think, uh, who was it?
Speaker 1:um, the guy from lincoln yeah lincoln michael yep, he just went over to messer as their weld specialist and you know you got sebastian trombe for lincoln out west. And you know you got Sebastian Trombe for Lincoln out west. And you got my friend Chase. He went and worked for Rockmount for a while and all these welders Red Seal welders, you know that have great jobs and great careers get pulled into the sales side of it. Because at the end of the day, welding shops, welding companies, welders don't like buying stuff from people that don't understand them. They hate it.
Speaker 2:They hate it. And when they meet people like us, they just open their wallet because they're like here, I need this, this, this, while you're there, oh. And then they just message you we need this this. You might not get the sale, but at least you're getting the pricing right Because they're looking for it. And then I found my love for sales too. I really did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Even in the foundation I keep telling our people. I can pitch the camp for you. It's okay, I enjoy that part.
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Speaker 1:You know, I've always considered myself to be bad at sales. And people are like how are you bad at sales? You're such a good talker. And I said well, it's one thing to talk and it's another thing to sell, yeah Right, and I feel like I can talk till the cows come home, but I don't know if I could close the deals like that. You know, it's a different, it's a different.
Speaker 2:And that's where the partnership, I think, with the outside sales worked well, because they were the dollar guy, they were getting most of the commission at the end of it. You were just there to kind of provide the product. Support, yeah, yeah, support yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, when you came into this new gig with the foundation as a technical education specialist, what were some of the things about this job that you were most pumped about doing?
Speaker 2:Definitely the educator training. Educator training sorry. The camps. I've never been involved with the camps, so that was cool. I've always heard rumors about these awesome camps that go on in the summer camps and the fact that I get to actually run them and work with them and work one-on-one with the kids is awesome. So, yeah, I think that's what it was. It was stepping back into education is where I wanted to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:What would be some of the things you'd like to, I guess, create or like venture into with this role? Because, you know, one of the things I've learned with CWB is that we're given quite a bit of freedom for introducing ideas.
Speaker 3:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:And I know the foundation's constantly evolving yes Right is constantly evolving yes Right, and there's always new funding envelopes and opportunities, and not just necessarily in your area but even for other areas. What are some of the ideas you've had, kind of, you know, percolating that you think would be great?
Speaker 2:Innovation really in the education side. So, like I said, in the educator training, kind of getting more advanced courses. So you've already taken the one, two, three units. Now how about four or five? Let's get more advanced. Another thing is innovation and welding. So, as you know, dobots, cobots, robots, that whole world. We want to push that envelope. So we have our capital equipment grant. We just split that up. Into three sections Into three sections, one being innovation. So, you have the classroom, you have the course.
Speaker 1:Now you want maybe a cutting table?
Speaker 3:or a cobot to kind of take it to the next.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially in these larger manufacturing areas, I mean it's a must. These people are going into these CNC shops or these robotic shops. So, yeah, I think that that next step is there.
Speaker 1:Well, equipment is such a hurdle and it's a it's also such a savior. You know like I remember when I was teaching at SAS Poly, we got a grant, a big one, from the provincial government and we bought a $500,000 brake press. You know, it's fully electric, like gears, no hydraulics, self-leveling, self-crowning. This thing it was the bee's knees and I remember at the time it was like this equipment's almost too good, it's too good for the school. It should be like sitting in some shop making a million dollars for somebody.
Speaker 1:But as soon as that piece of equipment came into the shop and was set up and everyone got learning how to run it, it brought in so much industry. Because now there was actually a school where the students could learn on the newest piece of equipment so that they can come out of the school. And they didn't learn on some acupress from 1932, right, that had like one foot stomper and you adjusted it with dials. You know they, they would learn on proper equipment and I think that that's something that kind of got lost. Even even when I was coming up in welding there was an attitude of like any old welding machine will work yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes and no right. Yeah, no, it definitely. It can definitely mold and change a program into something much more innovative, Like, like you said, a brake press or a set of rolls. Next thing you know, we're building fire pits and we're bringing people from uh, from from industry in to actually see these tools and use them, and and, and, like you said, then they're hiring your students even more. That's right, right, yep, yep.
Speaker 1:What would be you know, in your magic hat, what would be the some of the most important pieces of equipment a school should be looking at. Let's break this into A high school. What would be an important piece of equipment A high school? You know they're learning about these awesome grants that we may have that they can apply for, there might be funding for them, and they're like, well, what do I need? What would be something you think that every school should have?
Speaker 2:I always think about myself. If I'm doing something, you know what I mean. You're building. You're like, turn around, I with an iron.
Speaker 1:So, much with an iron.
Speaker 2:Especially with a piranha with some special attachments on it.
Speaker 1:It's got the seven things on it.
Speaker 2:Or a bandsaw. So I always try to tell people a bandsaw is great, an automated bandsaw.
Speaker 1:So you don't have to start. Then you can still go back and work. Yeah, you can just drop this plate on and walk away.
Speaker 2:Those would be two, and then probably a cutting table. Some type of plasma you're building logos for people. You can build signs for people Like you can really innovate your program with that.
Speaker 1:The pricing has changed, so much too in the last 10 years.
Speaker 1:Like I mean, I remember we're getting a four by four or four by eight plasma table just like a torch mate, you know, kind of at the bottom, and it was like almost unrealistically expensive for a high school and now you see them coming down in prices. I think there's a lot of competition, right. That's driven prices down because you can get plasma tables from all over the place now. But also other technologies have stepped up where water jets and lasers have come down in price too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the plasma world itself has stepped up. Like the plasma quality is getting so much greater. If you get a good power source and these tables, like you said, there's so many private Canadian companies building really nice tables, yeah. That has brought the price down a little bit, so that nice little table with a really good power source I mean you're all set.
Speaker 1:You can do whatever you want. You can etch and cut and everything, yeah.
Speaker 2:I see a lot of them for the capital equipment which is. It's great. So somebody is looking to advance their, their program, so I think that's a really good tool to have.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about colleges. You got a bank of welding machines. You got a probably a plasma table for sure. You probably got a press. You probably got maybe some basic rulers.
Speaker 3:You got an iron worker for sure.
Speaker 1:Most colleges are going to have an iron worker. What's the piece of equipment that a post-secondary place should be looking at in terms of advancing their program?
Speaker 2:Definitely the advanced short circuit processes, I mean.
Speaker 3:Like an.
Speaker 1:RMD or an STT RMD.
Speaker 2:STT. Talk about Ferronius Like you're looking at very advanced.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean me and you.
Speaker 2:We just love them all.
Speaker 2:So like yeah, yeah getting into those advanced because you might be going to a specialty shop where you're not just welding old solid wire short circuit. You might be going to that next level as well. As Cobots. Cobots are becoming a thing. A lot of companies I've sold to in my career but I've had other leads talking to manufacturers they're becoming a thing. I know in Quebec it's becoming. Every college, I think, wants to have one just because they want these students ready for industry and industry has co-bots. So we have to. We have to kind of adapt to that.
Speaker 1:It's true, it's true, and I mean some. You see the differences in colleges across Canada, where some colleges are just starting to adapt into it, some are flying, you know, like you. Look at what Conestoga is doing with some of their programs. I think SAS Poly's got 18 co-bots now.
Speaker 2:Like I mean it's getting up there right, it's almost a classroom full, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was the idea. The idea is like you want to have everyone on one, or else what's the point? Right, like simulators are cool, yep, but you can only go so far with a simulator right Right.
Speaker 2:And the last one I'll tell you is lasers yeah. Lasers are going to become a thing. They are a thing. Where are they going in our world in actual certification? I'm not sure. But for thinner material I've seen some amazing, uh uh amazing finish welds on products with them and, uh, some of the major manufacturers are buying them out. So you know, if they're buying in, it's it's, it's big yeah.
Speaker 1:I, um, I I talked to the guys at Waterloo and U of A all the time and, uh, I know that one of the actually I think one of the presentations that's happening at Weld Industry Day in Red Deer on June 11th is a? U of A student, eddie, and his project is on high-deposition laser welding and they're doing like half-inch, three-quarter-inch open-root fillets with like 532 laser wire and they're sorting them out Like I mean, they're running them root out four passes you know these on one inch plate and they're bending clean with almost zero prep and like I mean, I in the beginning it was like, oh yeah, lasers are cool If you're welding tin cans, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:That's cute, right you?
Speaker 1:know, but don't, that's never a thing you're going to see in industry then. Then I get to watch a Zingley, a half inch fillet. It's like okay, wow.
Speaker 2:We're just talking productions going through the roof. Yeah, like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1:And like such little gas coverage is needed, right, right, like you don't have to worry about purging or any of this stuff. It's, it's unreal. This, this next level that we're going to be getting into, this next level that we're going to be getting into, yeah, and then, like you said, once the big manufacturers get into it, yeah, they start dumping their money into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly Now you know they're taking it serious, so we need to take it serious to get to that level to meet industry and what they're doing in industry, right, mm-hmm?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now with skills here, you know, what have you seen so far today? How are the kids doing? How are the weldments?
Speaker 2:It's going really well. They fit together awesome. So basically, like I mentioned before, we're mimicking National, so it's a smaller pressure vessel.
Speaker 1:We don't pressurize it here, but that's what I asked someone if you're actually going to pressurize it or not, not this one.
Speaker 2:It's got a viewing window on the bottom, but Not this one.
Speaker 1:It's got a viewing window on the bottom. But at nationals we do. Yeah, Not that they all hold, but they're supposed to.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of advanced skill we have every process here so it's awesome and, yeah, just the exposure for them, like we mentioned at lunch, just to even be involved with this with the students, is just amazing.
Speaker 1:It sets them up for their career.
Speaker 3:It really does. Yeah, it sets them up for their career.
Speaker 1:It really does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's a really good, positive environment back there. Everybody's having a great time.
Speaker 1:Good, yep Good. Anybody make any like huge mistakes. This morning Anyone put anything on backwards. It was okay, because it's the blueprints that kill you. It was the blueprints.
Speaker 2:So I personally double checked them when I stamped them to Do a little nod. You can go back and fix this if you want, yeah.
Speaker 1:Every year, it's always the blueprint. It's never the skill, it's the blueprint that kills you yeah. Yeah, and they get sneaky, because what is it? Up to 30% changes are allowed.
Speaker 2:Yep 20% the morning off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, that's just mean. That's mean yeah, we're nice, we're.
Speaker 2:Tomorrow's high school, so it's actually the day one of Regina as well, so we're advancing it. For New Brunswick it's a first it has three groove welds on it, but for high school it has two flat and horizontal, which I'm looking forward to seeing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a great project, Horizontal, stick or horizontal.
Speaker 2:It's a F3F4. Or I should not say they might be listening. Yeah, it's an F3F4. It's okay, just me and you and the vending machines.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. That's right. And for the post-secondary there's open route. I believe there's one across the top right.
Speaker 2:A flat open route. Yeah, there's a TIG, there's a wire, there's a stick. So yeah, basically every process will be.
Speaker 1:Are they going to be doing aluminum?
Speaker 2:No, we don't, we don. Unfortunately, I know some provinces like to do even a complimentary fillet of a stainless and an aluminum we don't.
Speaker 1:So basically, if you win, uh, we got to get training pretty fast, then it's go time, cause it's only a couple months away now. Yeah, we're not even End of May. So yeah, about a month, about a month.
Speaker 2:Month away. Oh, that's sweat time Yep, yep. And it's a full, full out year for whoever that winner is. Yeah, exactly, you know what it's like coaching and everything. Yeah, it's non-stop.
Speaker 1:Well I mean once. Once you go to worlds, you realize the investment that's required to play on the big stage right, right, it's not a.
Speaker 1:You're doing this after work. It's not like you're doing this. You know, on weekends, right it's. You're quitting your after work. It's not like you're doing this. You know, on weekends, right it's. You're quitting your job, yep, and you are devoting eight hours a day to practicing literally these 15 weld types Right For the next year, which can be grueling. Yeah, I remember watching Adam just hate his life after you know the 900th open route in a row and we're like nope do it again?
Speaker 3:Nope, do it again, and it looks like perfect. Yeah, and they're all better than anything I can do.
Speaker 2:They're all perfect.
Speaker 1:But nope, do it again, it's got to.
Speaker 2:yeah, oh, you had one piece of spatter on there. You better watch that angle yeah. And you know that? Always say that to everybody. It's just like athletics. This is basically. They're competing like we would if we were in a sport. Yeah, Same thing, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I always say welders are like the NHL team of the trades. Yeah Right, we all. We're all missing a teeth, we got ugly tattoos, but we wear suits, yeah, so yeah, we clean up, it's true. Now, what's on tap for the rest of the year? You know, outside of skills, what's going on with the foundation? What do you guys got programming out? Uh, we're on a brand new fiscal right now, so lots of stuff planned out for the rest of the year.
Speaker 2:A lot of secrets still, because, people have applied, so we're we're just going through the process. I believe it's 30 camps this summer wow, uh, we're doing the capital.
Speaker 1:I think there was like 50 some applications, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. We'd love to fund them all if we could. But.
Speaker 1:Well, big company, hey, big, big welding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. You know we'll get that funding in, right, yeah, yeah, I've got to put my salesman hat on for that. So, yeah, the camps are huge, the events, basically most of the skills across Canada, and then national, same as yourself, and then the capital equipment will be, will be going through. There's the weld safe program going through, that's right.
Speaker 3:the weld safe program.
Speaker 2:And then there's the specialty, so there's the welder plus program. A lot of things I don't touch, but I know that we do a lot of it, yeah, and there's some one offs that come up too right, Like we're working with the Pallet Upskills program right now, which is a big one across Canada.
Speaker 1:That's a federal program that the CWB Association and Foundation are supporting. Right, we have the Filling the Gap program with the Boilermakers and the.
Speaker 2:UTIP program, the UTIP yep.
Speaker 1:I mean really, it's not very many parts of this industry.
Speaker 2:We're not trying to touch. No, it's true, it's great. It's awesome to see the uh, the uh support across Canada. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep. Now what do you uh? What do you got planned for the for yourself, like what? What do you see in your future?
Speaker 2:Ooh, I don't know. I have a great boss. Josh is awesome. So, as long as he didn't want that job. There's Danielle, we got a cool team we do, we do. We got some awesome people that work together and we get to work remote first, which is cool, so you're home with your family a lot. We do travel a lot, we have a lot of flight time, a lot of we're almost always home for the weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true, Like I mean most of our travel is reasonable, Right.
Speaker 2:It's what we signed up for. Right, it is, we knew it is. Yeah, yeah, it's a give and take and they're really, they're very nice to us and yeah, no, it's great.
Speaker 1:So how do people get a hold of the foundation, the CWB foundation, how do people get the information to this? And they say, hey, I have a school with a small welding program or I want to start a welding program or whatever it is. How do they look into this?
Speaker 2:So it's a large website but it's called cwbweldingfoundationorg and on there we have a info at you email us and it comes directly to us. We will call you within a couple of days from questions on curriculum support. We work with teachers across Canada on that To hey, I'm looking at running a camp. When are they open to be applied for that sort of thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so cwbweldingfoundationorg. Yeah, all right, you heard it here. First, folks, this is where you get them, and then how do people get a hold of you if they need to get a hold of you out here in the Maritimes?
Speaker 2:or in the Maritimes. In the Maritimes, like my email address. Yeah however, yeah, sure, it's just adamstead at cwbweldingfoundationorg and yeah, reach out. We have lots of awesome events and camps and things coming up. They have me in the East now, so we're trying to expand a lot through the Maritimes, that's good.
Speaker 1:It's been needed. We've been needing that support and when I heard that you're, when I saw your name come up on one of the documents, I was like oh, I'm connected in the maritime, so it helps, it does, and you need that right.
Speaker 2:You do, you do, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So awesome Thanks so much for being on the show and being with questions about running a camp or being involved with the Wilding Foundation at all. You know, reach out at any time and also the association is there to support you and your students and you for your whole careers. So you can always sign up for your free membership at cwbassociationorg. Keep downloading and sharing the podcast. We love you. We still got lots more coming out from New Brunswick here in Atlantic Canada and I'm excited to do them all. So check them all out and I'll check in the next one. We hope you enjoy the show.
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