GOODYEAR — Students in the southwest Valley are learning how to weld major infrastructure — underwater!
A new partnership between Commercial Divers International (CDI) in Goodyear and The Refrigeration School (RSI) is making it easier for welding students to jump between technical skills on land and underwater.
Gus Velez, CDI chief administrative officer, said the welding industry is expanding and more workers needed. He explained this partnership could increase the number of certified workers.
“There is a natural partnership there. I mean, surface level welding … [is] essential for bridges and what have you,” he said. “But guess what? That bridge is built in water, so even as you’re putting it together, you got to inspect the bottom to make sure it can stand the test of time.”
Program lets welding students expand skills
RSI is a Phoenix trade school that focuses on welding, HVAC and electrical work. Samantha Wilcox with the trade school said it builds trust with the students who want to expand their technical knowledge.
“If a student is really passionate about being in the water and wants to dig into opportunities there and they want to be a really skilled welder, that combination looks really attractive to them, and it goes both ways,” she said.
Marcus Clark, a CDI instructor and diver, said the job is hard, but it’s rewarding when a hard project is completed.
“Any dive where I got to go down and I saw bioluminescence or I couldn’t see a dang thing, and I was thinking like an octopus with my fingers. That was probably my favorite experience because it was always the adrenaline was so much that day,” he said.
Clark said this is a job artificial intelligence cannot replace, and it will become more essential in the next few years.
“The infrastructure of this country was built over a hundred years ago, give or take, and those concrete forms don’t last forever. So, we’re actually coming up on that time,” he said.
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