U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski is impressed with the workforce training that’s taking place at the SCILL Center welding lab. She stopped there yesterday as part of her district-wide education tour.
“One of the really competitive industries right now all over the country is this issue of welding,” Walorski said. ” We’ve had so many companies say to us ‘We need welders. We need welders. We need welders.’ My staff told me what’s going on here at the SCILL Center in Knox, and I couldn’t wait to get here just to see how it works.
Walorski added the program is fantastic.
“It’s young people coming through the high school, partnerships with companies made ahead of time, incredible, very relevant teaching, good products, good machinery, and allowing them to feed into these companies with ready-made jobs. That’s exactly what the country’s looking for is how can we develop the skills for people to get good-paying, lifelong jobs.”
Walorski said she’s pleased with the partnerships that continue to make the SCILL Center welding program possible.
“The school corporation couldn’t do it by itself. The corporate community couldn’t do it by itself, but when you start putting everyone together in a vested interest to say we’re going to produce welders, and we’re going to employ welders, what a great story. The story should be told at the national level.”
