For thousands of years, trade jobs have been the path chosen by people all across the globe. With an industry that never truly goes out of style, Hoover High School offers trade education opportunities for all who are interested.

The goal of preparing students for life beyond Hoover is exactly why so much consideration is put into the courses available for students. Mr. Robert White, Hoover’s Career Tech Associate Principal, has been working with the Career Tech program for 10 years and is well versed in the programs.

“We have nine programs here: Biomedical Sciences, Business Management, Construction Technology, Culinary Arts, Interactive Media, Med Tech, Engineering, Teaching Professions, and Video Productions,” he said. “Students at Hoover have access to attend programs in our compact too, so Lake, Jackson and GlenOak have a variety of programs. In fact, in our compact we have about 40 programs that students can be a part of.”

For the past decade, Hoover has been looking into making a welding class expansion of their own. Due to Hoover receiving a grant in November of $3.85 million from the Ohio Department of Education and Future Forward of Ohio, a new welding program will hopefully be in action for the 2025-26 school year. In order for a program of this size to
be added, it is important that Hoover sees that students have an interest in the field and that there is a noticeable demand.

“This will be the 11th year that we pull freshmen through the silent study on their interest and what they would like from a career standpoint,” White said. “What they have shared with us every single year is that welding is a high demand area for our students. So that is why it has kind of remained on our radar for several years, because students have said they wanted it. In our grant application, we could go back 10 years and show how many students have asked to have welding, so we demonstrated the need.”

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, announced Hoover’s new career tech grant at an event held earlier this year. Hoover was among 35 Ohio schools who received a portion of the $200 million grant. The grant will be used to expand the knowledge students have on the trade industry.

“We need all hands on deck to support this economic growth, and that’s why it’s vital that we help our career centers expand,” DeWine said.

More than Ohio’s schools are impacted, the state’s community is gaining thousands of jobs as companies expand. The expansion will help students use their trade career classes after high school.

“Ohio is on the rise. We have 54 companies coming to or expanding their operations into Ohio, creating thousands of jobs,” DeWine said.

Alongside DeWine, Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted spoke on the approval of the grant. Knowing the increase of trade jobs in the upcoming generations, Husted believes having the ability to teach trade careers will make it easier for students to enter the career force.

“Having access to high-quality equipment that Ohio businesses use will help students swiftly transition from classroom to workplace,” he said. “With this announcement, not only are we creating more opportunities for all Ohio students to earn a career technical education, but we are also giving them more opportunities to be career-ready when they graduate.”

Plans are already underway for the welding program at Hoover. When asked about how many students can be expected in the program each year, White was able to share the expected numbers.

“Our goal is to have 24 students in each class: 24 juniors, 24 seniors. Once this thing gets ramped up, that is the goal,” he said.

With the new program coming into effect, White believes that it will not broaden the opportunities for students’ lives outside of high school but it will also have a noticeable impact on the local community.

“It will impact students’ lives because you can earn $100,000 being a welder right now locally. Is it going to impact lives? Absolutely. They will be able to come out of high school and earn a livable wage right away if that’s what they choose to do,” he said. “The local businesses, not only in North Canton but in Stark County and the greater Stark County area have 550 manufacturers, employing I believe 26,000 individuals. We have places right here in North Canton and Stark County that need welders specifically, badly. We’re going to fill a need for them.”

By adding this new expansion, Hoover is hoping to inspire and give future welders a head start. Additionally, these classes may also be a useful tool in helping students decide on a specific career path and help pick out their desired field of study.

“They may leave here and say, you know what, welding isn’t for me but I do like supply chain or I like something in
manufacturing. I’m going to go into the trades, but I know it’s not welding that I want to do,” White said. “So, with all of our career-tech programs hopefully they do one of two things. They solidify your interest in something or they solidify that they definitely don’t want to do that.”

Currently, the trades are as important as ever. The expansion of Hoover’s programs will help further the opportunities for students who are ready to work straight out of school.

“You hear about construction students going out and culinary students going out and they’re ready for work,” he said. “If that’s what is next in their life, they’re ready for that and they’re prepared for jumping right into that industry.”

Although welding is an exciting new venture for trade students, Hoover is also already home to many career-focused programs. Engineering teacher Mr. Todd Alkire has firsthand experience witnessing students interested in pursuing trades after graduations. Due to working with students daily, he is able to see how Hoover trade classes advance
students’ knowledge in their preferred field.

“They provide students with skills and knowledge bases that would prepare them for a job immediately out of high school, if that’s what they want,” he said. “In addition, I would say it allows them to put their academic studies in context — and by that I mean their math and science concepts that they learn in class we apply in engineering or in construction trades.”

Current trade course students are also seeing the importance of enrolling in these classes prior to graduation. For junior Trenton St. Clair, who has been a student in the welding program for three years, agrees that it is important for students to have career and trade focused classes available in high school.

“It will give them an advantage in the future if they were to want to go into any future trades. It could also help them decide on if they would like to pursue that career because they had already gotten a taste for it in high school,” he said.

For many students, taking career courses at Hoover with no prior knowledge in the area may spark an interest in a specific career path. Students leaving Hoover will feel like they are prepared to jump head first into a field.

“I didn’t really have many expectations going into the engineering course. It was all really new to me and I had no
prior experience,” St. Clair said, “Although, everything that we’ve done so far for the past few years seems like the kind of stuff that I think you should know if you want to actually follow through with being in the engineering field. It
has all been super helpful and I’ve learned a lot.”

Alkire is confident that the career and trade courses available at Hoover will give students a kick-starter in life if they choose to keep pursuing it.

“I think that students that partake in a career tech field in addition to general studies are far more likely
to be successful in college than a student who doesn’t,” Alkire said, “Students who participate in Career Tech are more likely to earn high paying jobs once they leave high school.”

When asked if he had any advice for students interested in the trades, Alkire was quick to give some words of wisdom to students.

“Give it a try. You have nothing to lose. In fact, I would try more than one,” he said.