(WACO) – Cade West of Boerne already had plumbing, welding and oil field experience before registering for classes at Texas State Technical College.

He did the work after graduating in 2013 from TMI – The Episcopal School of Texas in San Antonio and briefly attending a four-year university.

“Our instructors tell us to treat school like a job,” said West, 22.

West is working toward an Associate of Applied Science degree in Building Construction Technology – Project Management Inspection Specialization at TSTC. One of the classes West is taking this summer for the associate degree is Piping Standards and Materials, which is also included in the Plumbing and Pipefitting Technology certificate program.

After graduation in 2018, West said he wants to work in the construction field and have the plumbing background to use when needed.

“It’s an honest living,” he said.

The need for pipefitters, plumbers and steamfitters is expected to grow nationwide by more than 49,000 jobs through 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of the largest employment fields include building equipment contracting, nonresidential building construction and utility system construction.

Texas had more than 40,000 pipefitters, plumbers and steamfitters as of May 2016. Workers were earning a mean average annual salary of $46,100, according to the federal labor statistics bureau.

The Woodlands – Houston – Sugar Land metropolitan area had the most pipefitters, plumbers and steamfitters in Texas with 13,000 workers as of May 2016. The Dallas – Plano – Irving metropolitan area had more than 8,600 workers in the same period. The Waco area had more than 300 workers, according to the federal labor statistics bureau.

“In Waco, there is a huge demand for qualified service technicians in both the plumbing and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) markets,” said Don Masten of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 529 in Waco. “Waco is aging, and we need trained people to maintain the buildings and homes as well as the aging infrastructure. With changes in technology, the process of building has sped up and become more efficient.”

Students in TSTC’s Plumbing and Pipefitting Technology certificate program take three semesters of hands-on classes to learn about backflow prevention, steam piping, blueprint reading and other topics.

“We are losing our older generation and don’t have as many younger people who want to get their hands dirty,” said Jimmy Bibb, a plumbing and pipefitting instructor in TSTC’s Building Construction Technology program. “We are more in the line of technicians.”

Bibb said school districts should include plumbing and pipefitting in curricula, similar to how construction technology and welding are offered for high school students through specialized technical career tracks.

Bibb said the typical student entering TSTC’s certificate program should not be afraid to work. He knows all too well what it takes to earn the Plumbing and Pipefitting Technology certificate from TSTC – he did it in 2009.

The Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners administers the testing and licensing for people working in the fields of plumbing, medical gas piping installation, public water supply protection, sewage disposal and natural gas.

Masten said Texas requires 8,000 registered hours as a plumber’s apprentice before taking the journeyman licensing examination.

“What this means is that a worker will have to be on the job and registered with the state for approximately four years before he or she will be considered eligible for the state exam,” Masten said. “This isn’t by accident. Plumbing is very diverse and despite improvements in material and technology, the science behind it has not changed. It takes that amount of experience under a qualified journeyman to gain the skills necessary to do the job correctly and efficiently.”

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.

(WACO) – Texas State Technical College in Waco and Baylor University’s Institute for Air Science have partnered since 1991 to provide opportunities for students to learn about aviation.

“TSTC has been flight training for a long time,” said William “Trey” Cade III, director of Baylor’s Institute for Air Science. “It was only logical if we were going to have a partnership for a flight program, we would partner with TSTC.”

Baylor and TSTC alumna Bond Henderson and current Baylor and TSTC flight training student Andrew Dolan were both exposed to aviation at an early age.

Henderson, a Kennewick, Washington native, grew up listening to stories of her grandfather flying “Hueys,” the nickname for Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopters, in the Vietnam War.

Henderson, 23, took her first discovery airplane flight while in high school, which quickly stoked her interest in flying. She graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in aviation science – professional pilot concentration from Baylor University and has an associate degree in aircraft pilot training from TSTC.

Henderson is now a fixed-wing instructor at TSTC and also working on helicopter pilot certifications.

“Baylor is a fantastic university,” she said. “This program brought me out of the ‘Baylor bubble’ and got me into more of Waco. I am thankful for the joint partnership. It gave me a real experience for the aviation industry and exposed me to more opportunities.”

Dolan, 21, knew he wanted to study aviation and attend a Christian university when he was attending high school in Ladera Ranch, Calif. He is majoring in the aviation science – professional pilot concentration at Baylor and is doing flight training at TSTC. Dolan is scheduled to graduate from Baylor in spring 2018.

He flies three times a week, weather permitting, with the hours in the air going toward his goal of flying in the U.S. Air Force or working for a West Coast and Hawaiian regional airline.

“TSTC is close to Baylor,” Dolan said. “It’s nice to get off campus. You can segment what you are doing. At TSTC, you don’t have the distractions. We (the Baylor aviation students) wear green, gray or black shirts. I have had some amazing instructors. Being at TSTC has been great.”

Carson Pearce, director of TSTC’s Aerospace Division, said there is a need for students to consider aviation because of the need for qualified pilots. Pearce said by 2024 there will be a projected shortage of 22,500 pilots worldwide.

“We are looking at the greatest shortage of pilots since the 1950s,” Pearce said. “This is due to the increase in commercial flights and retirements. There are airlines on our advisory board that are laying off aircraft because there aren’t pilots.”

Baylor offers bachelor’s degrees in aviation administration and aviation sciences concentrations in professional pilot, air traffic control and aircraft dispatch.

TSTC has associate degrees and certificates in the aircraft airframe technician, aircraft dispatch technology, aircraft pilot training technology and aircraft powerplant technology programs.

Baylor students can transfer their credits to TSTC to earn corresponding associate degrees, which is what Henderson chose to do.

Aviation was not what factored into Henderson’s college decision – it was her sense of adventure. She settled on Baylor after taking a campus tour and becoming enraptured by the buildings and trees. She enrolled as a business major but kept the possibility of aviation in her mind.

“Aviation turned into everything I love: there is business, physics, geometry, the human factors,” she said.

During the holiday break of her freshman year at Baylor, Henderson received flying lessons as a holiday gift. Then during the summer between her freshman and sophomore years, she took more lessons and got a private pilot’s license.

Henderson came across the aviation science curriculum on Baylor’s website and decided she found what she wanted to study. She shifted into the program a week before her sophomore year, which she said gave her motivation and focus with her college life and career goals.

Henderson learned about TSTC when she began taking Baylor’s aviation classes. At first she did not have a concept of what a two-year institution “looked” and “felt” like, but once she toured the James B. Connally Aerospace Center and TSTC Airport, she knew there were hands-on learning opportunities she had to take part in.

Henderson wants to fly helicopter tours at the Grand Canyon and later fly for emergency medical situations.

“Flying a helicopter is quite demanding and I love it so much,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to find something where I am helping the community,” she said.

For more information on Baylor University’s Institute for Air Science, go to baylor.edu/aviation.

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.

(WACO) – Prosper Waco and its Project Link initiative, along with the Heart of Texas P-20 Regional Council, hosted teachers from area high schools this week for the High School Counselor Summer Fly-In to learn about collegiate academic and technical programs and admissions processes.

More than 20 counselors and teachers from Bell, Falls and McLennan counties, along with Project Link staff, learned about academic pathways at McLennan Community College and technical programs such as Air Traffic Control, Electronics Technology and Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Technology at Texas State Technical College.

“It was very good to enlighten them about the programs and have them make connections,” said Brandon Chappell, TSTC’s Project Link outreach specialist. “We try to show them what we have in relation to the high schools’ courses.”

During the daylong visit on Thursday at TSTC, workshop attendees learned about internship and on-site learning and research opportunities for students in the Radiation Protection Technology program, career outlooks in the Electrical Power and Controls program and the space education work that groups can undertake at the Challenger Learning Center. Attendees also learned how students can work with Career Services staff.

Stacey Talley, a career and technical education teacher at Waco High School, said the workshop inspired her to set up a corner of her classroom dedicated to TSTC and MCC to motivate her students to take closer looks if they feel like four-year colleges are not viable career goals.

“I want to be knowledgeable and a resource to help get them to the next step,” Talley said. “Everyone at MCC and TSTC is very focused on helping the students get the job, get employability skills and the contacts with industry leaders.”

Project Link is a partnership between the nonprofit organization, TSTC, MCC, the La Vega Independent School District and the Waco Independent School District to promote a college-going culture among the city’s high school students and families.

The High School Counselor Summer Fly-In was made possible by a TG Philanthropy grant announced in May and awarded to McLennan Community College and Prosper Waco to expand the Project Link initiative to Waco High School. The $149,700 grant is for 18 months.

For more information on Project Link, go to prosperwaco.org/project-link/.

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.

(WACO) – The second time was just as golden for Marcus Crespin of Victoria.

Crespin, 21, a Computer Maintenance Technology and Computer Networking and Systems Administration major at Texas State Technical College in Waco, earlier this month received his second consecutive gold medal in Residential Systems Installation and Maintenance at SkillsUSA’s 53rd National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

Students at TSTC in Waco won five SkillsUSA medals this year: two gold, one silver and two bronze. This year marked the most medals won since 2011 when SkillsUSA members won eight medals, according to James Matus, TSTC’s statewide SKillsUSA manager.

Crespin’s contest lasted more than five hours and involved installing an antenna along with networking a smart doorbell, home thermometer and security camera. He also took a written test.

Crespin said he felt pressure to repeat his feat from 2016 of winning the gold medal in the same event. He said he had doubts on the bus ride to Kentucky.

“I was less confident when they called the third place winner and then the second place winner,” he said. “When they called my name, I almost cried on the spot. It was unbelievable.”

Juan Gongora, a classmate of Crespin’s from Victoria, won a silver medal in Information Technology Services. He finished seventh in last year’s contest. Gongora, 21, is majoring in Computer Maintenance Technology, Cloud and Data Center Management and Computer Networking and Systems Administration and is scheduled to graduate in December.

Gongora’s contest examined participants’ knowledge of 10 modules, including Linux, Windows Registry, mobile devices and viruses and malware. He prepared for the contest by studying and using material he learned in classes.

Gongora also accomplished another goal: he collected pins from every state and U.S. territory represented at the conference. He collected his last pin the day of the closing ceremony by trading for a Hawaii pin.

“You would trade Texas pins, and if you had other states’ pins you traded them too,” Gongora said.

The Quiz Bowl team made of Pete Baus, Cameron Burt, Christopher Dunn, Louis Garcia, James Pearson, Justin Tucker and Robert White won the bronze medal. The team was tested on current events, general academic knowledge, professional development and SkillsUSA facts.

“It was a lot of practice,” said Baus, 23, of Waco and a Cyber Security, Computer Networking and Systems Administration, Computer Maintenance Technology and Digital Forensics major from Waco. “Our team was basically the same from last year when we finished fourth. We would meet each Wednesday for two hours. Honestly, there was a lot of confidence.”

Baus said he learned more about teamwork and research while preparing and competing for the Quiz Bowl contest.

Also placing in the top three in conference categories were Joshua Hall, Zachary McLeskey and Peggy Sue Pilant, who earned a gold medal in Chapter Display, and Amy Bartlett and Charlene Knox, who received bronze in Interactive Application and Video Game Development.

TSTC in Waco sent more than 40 students who won gold medals at SkillsUSA’s statewide postsecondary contest held in the spring in Waco to this year’s national conference.

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.