Local high schoolers invited to heat up their futures with UA Local 400 and MCA

KAUKAUNA – High school teams from across northeastern Wisconsin showcased their craftsmanship and creativity at the sixth annual Heat Up Your Future skills competition, hosted by Plumbers and Steamfitters UA Local 400 and the Mechanical Contractors Association (MCA) of North Central Wisconsin.

Over the past month, teams built custom pipe stoves to exact specifications in their schools before bringing their finished projects to the UA Local 400 Training Center in Kaukauna for judging on Nov. 11.

“We’re proud to have welcomed a record number of nineteen schools this year,” said Nick Johnsen, UA Local 400 training director. “The quality of work these students produced was nothing short of amazing. Their projects reflect the same problem-solving, precision and pride we value in our trade — and it’s exciting to see that level of skill and curiosity at the high school level.”
By participating in the challenge, students had the opportunity “to build teamwork and to see that there’s trades that are actually involved with this welding aspect of it, not just doing the rote welding that we do all the time in class,” said Wes Berndt, technology education teacher at Green Bay Preble High School. “The competitiveness also brings out a lot more quality than what you see typically in the classroom.”

In working on the project, Berndt said his students had to learn how to work with pipe — many for the first time.

“It’s fun, but there’s a lot of math that goes into it that they would never see otherwise,” Berndt said. “The most difficult part was probably the layout because they’ve never worked with round parts. Everything’s been flat and rectangular in shape.”

Instructors from UA Local 400 evaluated each project on weld quality, dimensional accuracy and overall creativity.

During the judging period, students toured the training center, met field professionals and explored career pathways in the plumbing, steamfitting and HVACR trades.

“Jobs in welding and the pipe trades are in high demand,” said Jeff Gaecke, executive vice president of the MCA of North Central Wisconsin. “Seeing so many young people interested in learning these skills gives me great confidence in the future of our industry.”

According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the pipe trades rank among the state’s “Top 50 Hot Jobs” projected through 2032.

The Heat Up Your Future Skills Competition is designed to introduce high school students to rewarding careers in the pipe trades — fields that provide excellent pay, job stability and long-term advancement opportunities.

“Whether it’s any of the disciplines here — whether it’s plumbing, steamfitting, service, fabrication — there’s a lot of cool career opportunities…” Gaecke said. “It’s a really neat, sustaining thing not only for the students, but for the whole community… We’re getting students involved as sophomores or juniors in high school that then can kind of see a future ahead of them and thinking like, ‘How does that relate to the real world? How could I use that in an industry? How could I use that for a contractor or to earn a living and have a really great career?’ I think it’s really exciting that they get to start to see the stuff at an early age… These are the types of things that really can stand out, maybe more so than a test or a quiz that they took at school or a book report or whatever — a real life project.”