A new program at Ozarks Technical Community College starting in the fall semester will eventually produce more plumbers available for holiday emergencies — and a whole lot of other work.
Part of the ongoing renovation inside the Industry Transportation Technology Center involves making room for an expanded plumbing program. Funded in part with a $1.2 grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the program will give students training for installing and maintaining residential plumbing systems.
Upon completion, students will have enough knowledge about home plumbing systems and the tools used to keep them working to get them a job considered to in high demand, said Matt Hudson, dean of technical education at OTC. The nine-month program will be more detailed than the college’s current plumbing offerings.
“We will be graduating pre-apprentice plumbers,” Hudson said. “Someone who is job ready but is going to need additional supervision. But not the same level of supervision or training that a person walks off the street with.”
Mike Polino, owner of Lorenz Plumbing, said a training program like this has been needed for a long time, in part because of its graduates, but also for its ability to boost the plumbing profession within skill trades.
By taking on an OTC graduate, Polino said pre-apprentice work can emphasize other critical parts of the job, such as interacting with clients.
“It’s not just about the knowledge you gained about plumbing,” Polino said. “It’s about learning patience, it’s people skills, all of those things. That’s what’s really important to us, especially when we are working in people’s homes, right in front of customers.”
Cut-away kitchens help show systems
The training center is going in the southeast corner of the Industry Transportation Technology Center, in a space formerly occupied by a greenhouse. The movement of OTC’s agricultural programs to the Richwood Valley campus in Christian County created space.
In the case of the plumbing program, the space will allow for a much more complete view of a home plumbing system, without students having to guess what’s tucked away in walls or buried underground. Hudson said the space for the plumbing program will offer cutaway views of plumbing systems like the ones often found in southwest Missouri homes — as if those homes were sawed in half.
“Most houses in the Springfield area are traditionally a raised foundation with crawl space,” Hudson said. “We will create in that lab a series of components that are honestly built in, and that will allow a person to simulate the size of a crawl space and see what a system underneath a house looks like.”
Hudson said the lab will look like a series of small kitchens or bathrooms with varying degrees of completion. That way, students will be able to see what a newly constructed system looks like, if they are hired for new home construction. Or, more commonly, they will be able to troubleshoot problems in areas where they can’t immediately see.
That way, diagnosing a problem will require as little removal or destruction of drywall as possible, Hudson said.
Demand brings industry leaders to table
The program was designed with the help of Springfield industry leaders, Hudson said. Lorenz Plumbing and DeLong Plumbing were consulted to help determine curriculum and industry needs, Hudson said. OTC faculty also worked with the local Plumbers and Pipefitters Union to ensure the program met needs that weren’t otherwise being addressed.
In working with those groups, the college got plenty of confirmation that the plumbing industry is hurting for workers. Hudson said the lack of training programs and an increasing median age is putting a squeeze on the profession.
“This program has long been on our to-do list, because it has become increasingly in demand to the point where we are regularly answering questions about whether we offer something,” Hudson said. “The plumbing sector, in the skilled trades, is one of the most underfunded groups right now, without graduates to be able to do this work.”
Polino said the program will also help elevate plumbing within skill trades. A full program sends a message that there is much to learn about the field, and that knowledge will serve them well as they work toward a journeyman over four years and a master’s over four more.
“When we employ people and get them to understand what we have to offer in our industry, it can be difficult at times,” Polino said. “This program will bring the field to a level where they see it on the level of other trades with classes at OTC. We’re glad to see a program like this come online.
Hudson said the median age of working plumbers is now upwards of 50 years old. As fewer people enter the profession, the loss of those plumbers on retirement will be particularly missed.
Earlier this year, the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center reported the average annual salary for a plumber is about $62,000 across the Ozarks region. The field is eligible for the state’s Fast Track Workforce Incentive Grant, which pays tuition and fees for non-traditional students.
Joe Hadsall
Joe Hadsall is the education reporter for the Springfield Daily Citizen. Hadsall has more than two decades of experience reporting in the Ozarks with the Joplin Globe, Christian County Headliner News and 417 Magazine. Contact him at (417) 837-3671 or jhadsall@sgfcitizen.org. More by Joe Hadsall
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