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Sparks fly at high school welding championship

The annual Midlands Tech welding competition kicked off Friday putting college students to the test.

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — A welding competition at Midlands Technical College on Friday aimed to introduce high school students to an industry filled with staffing shortages.

Britney Mickle is a senior at Fairfield Career and Technology Center, taking welding classes. She started welding during her sophomore year and spoke highly about the joys of being a student welder. She's the only female welder in her class but that hasn't stopper her from falling in love with the trade.

"I put my best foot forward throughout anything that I do." She explains, "I be in my own little world with nobody else around me so I have nothing else to focus on but myself and what I'm doing."

On Friday, her school was one of the 15 schools taking part in the college's welding competition where 58 students competed to be the best in the midlands. Students were given an hour to weld two pieces of scrap metal together before their pieces were judged.

According Caleb Fulwood, the welding program director at Midlands Tech's Airport Campus, says the workforce is in dire need of fresh hands, and companies are offering to pay higher wages to get welders hired.

"The average age of the welder right now is 50-years-old and so with all of those individuals retiring, there's a huge demand for the newer individuals to get into this really lucrative career." He adds, "Competitions like this really help introduce the high school students to our industry and then we are that stepping stone for them into the industry, into that direction that they want to go."

Mickle says the high pay and thousands of vacancies is what drove her to the program, is hoping after she completes her courses, she'll be right at the front lines of the workforce.

"It's not as bad as it seems. The boys make it seem like it's so hard but it's not."

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