Eight welders certify in Nome as a $400 million port job looms

Eight adults from around the Bering Strait Region finished a three-week welding certification course in Nome on July 25, timed almost perfectly. A $399.4 million expansion of the Port of Nome is about to need people who can weld.

Kawerak, the regional tribal consortium, sponsored the shielded metal arc welding course, run through July in the Nome-Beltz High School lab while school was out. Students gave up time at home during subsistence season to do it, and got there without leaving the region, with Bering Straits Native Corporation and Norton Sound Health Corporation covering rides and meals and Kawerak's workforce team running evening sessions on resumes and interviews.

The port work is the backdrop and the opportunity. The Army Corps awarded Kiewit the Phase 1A contract to extend the port 1,200 feet, with completion projected for 2029 and a second dredging phase expected to bid this year. Instructor Brian Walsh said demand for skilled workers is high and likely to stay that way, with the port, the state DOT and other employers ramping up.

For the students it's a door that just opened close to home. Darryl Takak of Golovin said the certification means he can now apply for welding work locally. Danielle Silook, from Gambell, said she was glad she didn't have to leave Nome to train: "Instead of having to travel out of Nome to get the training, I'm glad they held it here."