Industrial growth boosts demand for skilled trades in South Texas

Sparks fly in a Brownsville, Texas, warehouse as local students practice grinding bevels into steel pipes. This is Jason Medina’s STX Metal Trades, a 12-week hands-on program for pipefitting that is meant to prepare people to quickly enter jobs in the field.

“When they get out there, that’s probably one of the first things they’ll be tasked to do,” Medina said.

Medina started his school three years ago. He was a union pipefitter and worked on projects across the country, but he decided to come back home to Brownsville, anticipating a deficit of workers.

Industrial growth in the Rio Grande Valley has spurred demand for skilled trade workers in South Texas. SpaceX is planning to expand, two liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities are being built in Brownsville, and there are plans for a massive, high-tech shipyard to come to the area.

The growth is also a unique opportunity for locals. In the Rio Grande Valley, wages and unemployment trail behind the rest of the state and the nation. Trade programs like Medina’s are aimed at getting the local workforce into the skilled trades.

“There was a mission to come home and open up a training facility that catered to the industry that was coming,” he said.

It’s just him and his business partner who run it. His students are from Brownsville and the surrounding communities.

“And in three years that we've been operational, we've trained about 150 different pipefitters, and we've pumped most of those into the local workforce,” he said.

Those jobs start at about $20 an hour but can become six-figure careers.

One of Medina’s students is 27-year-old Adolfo Sandoval, who grew up near here. He currently works with rebar at the LNG construction site. He comes here for three to four hours of night class after 10 hours on the job, because he thinks pipefitting will be a better career.

“It does pay better,” Sandoval said. “I like cutting. I like grinding. It's kind of fun. And it's like building adult Legos.”

Also adjusting to industrial development in the area is Texas State Technical College in Harlingen. The college is offering an electrical construction certificate for the first time, in part to meet the demands of recent growth, like the new LNG facilities.

“Now some of the first phases of those projects are getting to the point where they're needing HVAC and electrical and like all of that is now coming into play,” said Gina Cano-Monreal, Texas State Technical College provost.

She sees growth as an opportunity for locals to find better-paying jobs without having to move away.

“Most of our folks here would prefer to stay here,” she said. “That allows them to still get that high-paying job, but remain local.”

And students are getting offered good, local jobs in real time at STX Metal Trades. Medina received a call before class from a recruiter asking for workers.

He offered the spots to three of his top students, then shared the news during night class.

“I told you guys performance in here determines how soon you get out to the field. So congratulations,” he said.

In just a matter of weeks, students in the room were bracing to enter the field, putting their hands-on pipefitting education into practice and getting paid.