Valmont Industries says it welcomed 24 new pre-apprentice and apprentice students into its trade program in Jasper, Tenn. Of these students, the 17 new high school-aged pre-apprentices will receive firsthand training at Valmont during the school day and have an opportunity to join the apprenticeship program or be hired by Valmont after graduation, the company says. The 7 new apprentices will receive on-the-job training at Valmont coupled with classroom instruction at Chattanooga State Community College, the registered apprenticeship sponsor.

According to Valmont, the pre-apprenticeship program, which was established in 2019, was the first college-sponsored welding pre-apprenticeship program in Tennessee. There have been 37 program graduates, with more than a dozen now working full-time at Valmont.

For its pre-apprentice program, Valmont says it partners primarily with 2 Tennessee school districts — Marion County Schools and Sequatchie County Schools.

“Participating in the apprenticeship program was a great way to earn a wage while gaining the welding and fitting experience as opposed to paying for experience through a more traditional higher education path,” says Seth Davis, a recent apprenticeship graduate now working full-time at Valmont as a welder and fitter.

Program graduate Brett Kirk, who also now works at Valmont as a welder and fitter, has similar praise for the program. “Valmont’s program has given students like me a chance that, otherwise, I would have never had,” he says. “It truly could change young men and women’s lives.”

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