For years, the John Pope Eden Career Technical Center has been the place for high school students to learn a trade as they prepare for life.Now, a business in the Pell City Industrial Park is giving students the opportunity to learn their trade on the job as they co-op and make a little money to boot.
Since the beginning of the year, Southern Rack & Fab LLC has brought on two welding students from Eden Career Tech Center. The two students are Jeremy Nickens from Pell City High School and Jacob Kay from Ragland High School. They work at Southern Rack & Fab every afternoon.
Plant operations manager Bill Hayes said so far this plan has been exceptional.
“These guys go to their different high schools in the morning hours and then come in and work in the afternoon anywhere from two to four hours each day,” Hayes said. “This has been good for us and it has helped us fill the need we had of making parts and some assembly pieces for us that go into making an entire rack assembly. They have done a good job and they are willing to learn.”
Southern Rack & Fab makes material handing racks for the automotive industry — basically steel racks that haul car parts back and forth from the supplier to the assembly line.
Hayes said this is something he hopes to continue here in Pell City. The parent company in Ohio has been using the co-op program for the past eight years and has seen success with it.
“A lot of the guys from the high school up there went on to be hired full time with the company,” Hayes said. “Hopefully, this is something we can continue doing here.”
Nickens is a 17-year-old junior at Pell City High School.
“I love working here as a welder,” Nickens said. “It beats bagging groceries, flipping hamburgers or anything else I can do at 17 years old. I love welding, and I plan on doing it the rest of my life.”
Kay is an 18-year-old senior at Ragland High School.
“I had a grocery job but I did not like it,” Kay said. “I always wanted to do welding and that’s why I went to Eden Career Tech Center. I just want to be in it the rest of my life.”
Bill Dill is the welding instructor at Eden Career Tech Center and said it is so very important for these guys to get jobs like this.
“That is what they come to the trade school for,” Dill said. “They can actually learn a lot more here on the job than they can at the trade school. I can teach them the basics, but when they get in a plant like this, they are going to learn a lot more. They will get more experience and it will help them as they further their careers.”
Dill said these guys had to spend a minimum of one year with him at Eden Career before allowing them to go out into the workforce.
Larry Watkins is the co-op coordinator at Eden Career Tech Center. His job is to keep the students headed in the right direction.
“I primarily teach life skills or coordinated studies,” Watkins said. “The students have to be enrolled in coordinated studies or had these studies before they get to the co-op program. Through the distance-learning network, I am able to teach students at five or six different sites.”
Watkins said students are able to learn more about what they are trying to teach them when they are actually out in the workplace.
