JEFFERSON COUNTY, Texas — Golden Triangle Polymers is giving Southeast Texans a free opportunity to become certified pipefitters with it's local first program.
Chance Scott is a Southeast Texas resident who jumped at the opportunity in order to follow in his families footsteps, and learn the skills to work in a refinery.
"First of all its a free program that they're giving back to the community, so Its kinda like it was a hard decision to pass up," Scott told 12News.
Now Scott is working on becoming a master pipefitter over the 10 week course.
"Say if you want a refinery, anything that's gotta work you know, you have to have a pipe system. So when they're coming up here. They get to learn how to identify their values, their blue prints," instructor Mathew Boudreaux said.
Student Khanh Ha says that he has been trying to break into the power city industry for a while now and is enjoying the classes.
"We're learning how to cut pipes and measure pipes and cut them," Ha said while gesturing to a group of students, "They're learning right, they're learning how to line up pipes correctly."
Ha says participants are also learning how to build scaffolding and more.
"Rigging, welding, construction. A little bit of everything," said Ha.
In this industry, the multitude of skills that the course is teaching is invaluable.
"So being a pipe fitter on this side, in this construction class, it opens the doors for you to go to just about any refinery with your NCCER accreditation," said Boudreaux.
Sommer Jones is a student who is grateful for this free opportunity to further her career.
"I do wanna further my career in the construction industry, so this class is providing me that opportunity to provide for me and my children," Jones said.
Another opportunity the program provides is connecting graduates to potential employers.
"A lot of companies will come to graduation. They'll come here and watch our students train, so they know the people that we're putting out. They know the training that we're putting out, and so a lot of them will hire our students," Boudreaux said.
This free pipefitter helper program is open to adults of all ages. They'll earn a certificate from the national center for construction education and research which allows recent grads to get paid up to $22 per hour.