For Whitney Foyer, the start of her 14 weeks at the Georgia Trade School in Acworth are best encapsulated by one word: fun.
“My first week of school here, I was legitimately laughing in my booth, because I was having so much fun,” Foyer said.
The 25-year-old from Indianapolis, Indiana, moved to Georgia three years ago in search of a fresh start.
With the help of a scholarship from Mike Rowe, known for hosting the reality TV show “Dirty Jobs,” and a grant from P.E.O. International, which helps support women in their educational pursuits, Foyer was able to pay the full $10,750 tuition at GTS, where she started in September 2022, becoming a certified welder in less than four months.
GTS has 1,200 graduates across 20 states. Graduates have worked on such projects as Truist Park, The Battery Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, multiple airports, the hit show “Stranger Things” and Tyler Perry Studios productions, among other film and television sets, said Ryan Blythe, the school’s founder and owner.
Blythe said the school is now graduating around 225 welders annually.
A decade of growth
GTS, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2022, is a welding school with two full-time classes, one in the morning and another in the afternoon, and a part-time night class geared toward older adults, all aimed at training and graduating certified welders who go on to high-demand, good-paying welding jobs.
Based in Kennesaw from 2012-2017, the school is now in Acworth, where its hands-on program starts students, many of whom come straight out of high school, welding on the first day of the program.
“They can come here with literally no knowledge and within 14 weeks, they can be making good money as a welder,” GTS instructor Dalton Emory told the MDJ.
On a Tuesday afternoon, the welding lab at GTS was a flurry of activity, with welders at various stages…
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