Local work-based program sparks student's welding career

A local teen is impressing a lot of adults with his skill and ambition. On this edition of Schools Rule, News 10's Lora Painter takes a closer look at how he is now on a lucrative career path thanks to a local work based learning program.

Brayton Davis is a senior at Potterville High School and welding runs in his blood. He said his dad was a pipe fitter and he grew up with a welder at home. One day he fired it up and really enjoyed it. He is just months away from graduating high school and he feels ready to enter the adult work world full time thanks to an innovative partnership.

Davis said, "Potterville was with LCC in doing a welding program. Now I actually have a welding job at Dowding Industries. I come to LCC in the morning; I go back to Potterville and I take two high school classes and then at 2:30 I go into work from 2:30 to 6:30."

The co-op program between local schools like Potterville High School, Lansing Community College and Eaton RESA offers work-based learning in Eaton County, connecting students to careers they love and prepare them for work or college. The need for this kind of education is great.

Lucas Schrauben, career development coordinator at Eaton RESA, said, "We're seeing right now in the state what's kind of being called a skills gap. There's up to 81,000 positions that are going to be available in the next five to seven years in the state of Michigan in the skills trades."

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

http://www.eatonresa.org

http://www.eatonresa.org/services/career-and-technical-education/

https://www.lcc.edu/learning/areas-of-study/computers-engineering-technology/apprenticeships/index.html