Master welder changing perceptions of the job
For welding instructor Lawrence Nalty, teaching the science of fusing metals together is not just a job, but a passion which motivates him to change the negative perspectives of the profession.
Over the last 20 years, Nalty, who is an instructor at the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), has taught hundreds of students, and found great joy in doing so. However, he told THE STAR that many have deemed welding as a job for the less intelligent, which is a major misconception.
“First of all, not because you’re doing a trade doesn’t mean you’re ‘dunce’. When you apply for welding [courses], you need chemistry and physics, because those are the fundamentals of the trade,” said the master welder who has 48 years of experience. When Nalty began studying to be a welder at age 18, he was first educated at the Papine Industrial Trade Training Centre, after which he did evening classes at St Andrew Technical High School. He was also trained in South Korea, studied
welding engineering in Japan, and did his instructor training programme at the Vocational Training Development Institute.
He told THE STAR that he became an instructor because he saw the need.
“A lot of persons that were not very knowledgeable end up teaching, because the persons with the real skill and knowledge, they are not teaching. So the persons that end up doing it were not the best. So, I came into teaching because of that shortfall,” he said.
While at his workshop at CMU, Nalty, dressed in his blue overalls, steel-toed boots, large gloves and welding shield, gave a demonstration. He meticulously cleaned two pieces of metal and carefully used a welding transformer, with a thin metal rod called an electrode, to merge the pieces together and create a T-joint. He said that although he feels great pride in working in the profession, he has encountered many Jamaicans who deem it as ‘dirty work’, and hopes that image will one day change.
“When people see me with my clothes looking rusty, they normally say I’m dirty, but I always correct them and say it’s iron oxide. There are portions of it (the job) that you have to dress up very clean to do, but because metal, steel, naturally corrodes, the oxide of rust – the reddish brown thing – that is what we have on our hands. But normally, we are using safety gear like gloves, so we’re not dirty,” he stressed. Nalty opined that at times, welding is like performing surgery.
“If it’s not clean, then you have contamination on your material. We try to remove it, the extra contamination, that way the electrode will be able to do the rest of cleaning,” Nalty said, adding that welders generally work in clean environments to ensure the best final product and avoid safety hazards.
He lamented that in Jamaica, some persons do not value tradesmen, as they are led to believe that professions like medicine are more valuable.
“Tradesmen are the ones that do the work. Lawyers can’t build houses, plant food. It’s the skilled people that do that for our countries, so we need to start putting more value on the skilled aspect,” Nalty said. He added that welders are in high demand globally.
“Most of our skilled welders, they don’t reside here, they’re overseas because they get good pay for their labour there. Just like how the teachers and the nurses are leaving, our welders are leaving,” he said.