Even above the low hiss of an open welding studio, the crackle of stingers and torches -- no pun intended -- cuts through.
This room makes outsiders want to learn a new language. You got your arc and your TIG. Your GTAW and MIG. None of it makes sense if you’re not on the other side of translucent curtains, where sparks pop like tiny fireworks shows reflected in the masks of high schoolers hoping to win the day.
This is the return of the Annual High School Career Center Welding Competition to Spartanburg Community College. The competition is a product of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) and its team of regional workforce advisors, and it’s where students from Upstate high schools and vocational schools collect in SCC’s welding bays to show their skills to potential employers.
The push towards skilled trades like welding is a kind of course correction for the young and career-bound. Back in the 1980s, the big push for high school students was to go to college to get a four-year degree.
“I think it backfired on them,” says Tommy Swanger, a welding teacher at Daniel Morgan Technology Center in Spartanburg.
As Swanger sees it, that push towards college degrees over trade schools created a vacuum of skilled tradespeople. When it comes to welding, there is merit to Swanger’s argument. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a third of the country’s half-million welders (in 2025) were age 45 or older. The median age of a welder was 39.5.
While not the dire crisis of skilled labor that often circulates in media circles, it is a noteworthy statistic, as is the fact that the share of people ages 16 to 24 who are entering the profession is exactly the same as the percentage of welders ages 55 to 64.
For Swanger, the equation is simple -- there are careers open in welding, and competitions like this one show students that it’s all right to not be suited for a bachelor’s degree.
“You don't have to be a college person or go to college to make a good living in welding,” he says. “It just takes somebody that loves doing hands-on, dedicated [work] and wants to work.
And given how fast the Upstate is growing, there is plenty of work ahead for welders, says Sara Neil-Spencer, a regional workforce advisor for the Upstate at DEW.
“We definitely need welders,” Neil-Spencer says. “I know the Upstate, the greater 14 counties, are in desperate need for welding. There's a lot of those programs offered at SCC and some of the other technical colleges in the state, and there is a real high demand for that.”
This particular competition, she says, is designed to let employers see what kind of talent is locally available (or soon will be).
“Our big goal is to bridge these gaps,” Neil-Spencer says. “To bring these folks together and show them [that this is] what these students are doing. These are going to be your future talent pipeline, and we really want to be able to showcase that in a way that just puts them right in it.”
While the hype behind welder salaries often centers on six figures, most newer welders make a more modest living. If you weld on oil rigs or in the aerospace industry, as Tommy Swanger did for 24 years, then six-figure income starting early in your career is a real possibility. According to according to BLS, though, newer welders in South Carolina generally make about $25 an hour. Welders working in the Northeast, Alaska, and in West Coast states, on average, make a little less than twice that.
Maybe the biggest asset for recruiting new welders is that the demand for them is almost everywhere.
“This is a definite good trade to stay in because there's a lot of money in it, especially if you travel well,” says Jared Duncan, a welding instructor at Swofford Career Center in Inman. “But there's nothing wrong with staying local either. There’s a lot of money out there to be made and we need all the welders that we can get, for sure."
Will any of the students in this competition want to stay in South Carolina?
Most haven’t made up their minds. But the lure of travel and good pay is strong.
“I want to travel, but for right now, I, I kind of want to stay local,” says Adrian Nava Jimenez, a student at Dorman High School in Roebuck. “My dream is to travel around.”
Bairon Torres, a student at Daniel Morgan, has the same aspirations.
“After I graduate, because I'm going to graduate early, I want to go to Texas and do pipeline,” Bairon says.
He’s also been considering underwater work, which is typically among the highest-paying specialties in the field, but also among the most dangerous. What he's more certain of is that wants to see a little of the world before he finds his place in it.
“I'm young, I kind of want to travel around,” he says. “And then once I start having kids and then have a family, I’ll settle down, find a place to stay.”
No word yet on whether that will be in the Upstate.
