Inside IALR

Skills, Certifications and Career Opportunities: ATDM Success Stories

• Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

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 The Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing (ATDM) program is preparing the next generation of skilled workers for the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base. With an 85% job placement rate and graduates from nearly every state, ATDM is creating real career opportunities. In this episode, recent graduates Dylan Carter and Angel Gallaher describe how the program equipped them with technical expertise, industry certifications and career-ready confidence. 

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching.

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Dylan Carter:

It feels good like to be able to say I don't just have a job, I have a career, and that's something I'm grateful for.

Caleb Ayers:

Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Inside IALR. Today we're here to talk about a program. If you've followed the Institute for Advanced Learning very much, if you've paid any attention to our podcasts or really heard much of anything about what we're doing, you've probably heard about the ATDM program. Atdm is short for Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing. This program is making a huge impact, not only for the maritime industrial base, which is essentially the system of companies that make parts and pieces that are then assembled as parts of ships and submarines for the US Navy, but also for the individual participants. So this podcast is going to have interviews with two of those participants who came through this four-month program and actually graduated just a few days ago and are now going on to exciting careers in defense manufacturing and are now going on to exciting careers in defense manufacturing. Atdm has been around for several years but has been growing over that time and is now very close to reaching maximum capacity. With the new addition of the Maritime Training Center earlier this year on our campus, we're looking to graduate.

Caleb Ayers:

800 to 1,000 students complete this program every year. These students come from all walks of life. Essentially, you have to be 18. You have to be a US citizen, because that's what all of the companies hiring out of this program every year. These students come from all walks of life. We have, essentially, you have to be 18, you have to be a US citizen, because that's what all of the companies hiring out of this program require. We have students who are fresh out of high school. We have students who are in their 40s and just are looking for a different career path than what they have done previously and everything in between. And students come from, I think, almost every state at this point and go back into work in 30-plus states where there are Navy suppliers all over the country. So it's a really cool program with about an 85% completion rate and about an 85% job placement rate. So very, very, very strong numbers there. As far as you know, for those who are in the workforce, development, job training, those are very strong numbers and we're very proud of that. Again, the 18th cohort just completed the program a few days ago, bringing the total number of completers to date up to about 1,100. And again, that number is going to continue to grow as this program reaches full operational capacity.

Caleb Ayers:

It's just awesome to see the life change that this provides for students. There are so many students who come through some of them without other options really where this is kind of their last shot. There have been plenty of stories of students who have you know, a couple hundred dollars to their name, no real career experience to date. Things like that come through this program, apply themselves, work really hard work with the staff outside of the classroom on their career readiness, their resume, their interview prep and things like that, and walk out with an amazing job, an amazing career, not just a job. So it's just super cool to see and so we're excited to hear from two of those students. Our first interview is with Dylan Carter. Dylan, thanks for being here. I know you're the completion ceremony speaker for cohort number 18, so congratulations on that. So to start, can you just tell us a little bit about kind of your background before ATDM and how you ended up here?

Dylan Carter:

Before ATDM I was working in a warehouse, like just, it was a lousy warehouse. I'll be honest. It wasn't much going for me. It was only so far I could go up with it and I had. I took a welding class in high school and it always interested me, so I was like I got sick working in that warehouse, kind of just it was. It was brutal, like just not a good place to be honestly, honestly Not career-wise at all. It was a warehouse job and I had found this place online and so I had applied. Found it online because I was looking for trade schools, because I knew I wanted to get back into the trades, and this place popped up and it's the only school of its kind that I found. No tuition. They take you to and from class, free class, just so I'd signed up and here I am yeah, and how how old are you?

Dylan Carter:

I'm 23 23.

Caleb Ayers:

Okay, so you graduated high school and then, since then, have been working and and.

Dylan Carter:

I had different jobs here and there, like when I got out of high school I went to work immediately. I worked at a restaurant, then I went to work construction with my dad and then I worked at that warehouse and none of them felt fulfilling like at all. I was not happy with where I was at in my life and I wanted to do something, but I couldn't figure it out. Like I kept telling myself after high school, like oh, just one more year and I'll figure it out. One more year I'll figure it out. And like this kind of forced me to get out my comfort zone, which I'm thankful, because if I would have just stayed home, I feel like I would have just stayed at that warehouse or found another lousy job and just stuck with it and like just one more year. But this kind of like it forced me to get up from where I'm at back home and come all the way up here. And where are you from? Mobile, alabama, about 600 something miles away.

Caleb Ayers:

I mean, did you have any familiarity with this area of the country at all? Not at all.

Dylan Carter:

No, I don't have no family up here. No, no friends. I mean I made friends now in the program but before coming here I didn't know anybody. And like I've never been on the East coast I've always been down in the Gulf coast Like that's my area but I mean I've enjoyed my time up here.

Caleb Ayers:

And I've heard that you obtained a ton of certifications. So for those who don't know, during the program students don't necessarily like it's not part of their curriculum that they're obtaining the certifications. That's something they train for. So you obtained 14 different welding certifications. So talk to me about kind of what those are and how you prepared and obtained those.

Dylan Carter:

So we've got 12, I would say, I guess base ones that you have to get to try to get the extras. It's stick, MIG, flux core and TIG. I've got three in each of the four processes and then you get to try the extras after you get those. And the extra one I have is spray mag and yeah, two spray mags. I'm sorry, but I mean I mean just getting ready for them. I'd say, work with your instructor Like I had a great instructor. Shout out to Michaela Baker, one of the best instructors here, my opinion also recent podcast cast.

Caleb Ayers:

Go back and listen to that episode, one of my one of the favorite people here.

Dylan Carter:

Like she's helped me a ton with every process. She's came into my booth, answered my questions, showed me how she did it, showed me how I'm messing up, showed me how she would have did this. She'll walk you through it step by step and I feel like she's one of the big reasons I got all the certifications I did. And just working with her she's great. Just go up to her. You can go up to her and ask her and be like hey, what do you think I did wrong here? How could I do better on this? And she'll tell you. She'll be like well, you did this. Maybe you need to slow down here. Maybe you need to speed up here a little bit, have a better angle. She'll go through it with you step by step and just show you and tell you and I feel like she's a great reason. And then just following her instructions, like I feel like that helped me a ton to get my certification.

Caleb Ayers:

Sure, and you said you had taken a single welding class in high school. So I mean you're, and that was years ago, so you're basically coming in cold.

Dylan Carter:

Basically brand new, because like it was just stick and it was like how do I put it? Kind of like a rinky-dink high school curriculum.

Caleb Ayers:

Sure, I mean, it's a high school class.

Dylan Carter:

They kind of threw it together. We had one old man teaching like I want to say, 20 kids. So it was rough on him, but it was like he couldn't get in our boots and actually teach us hands-on. So we could because, I'll be honest, a lot of them kids when we left high school, a lot of them didn't even go to Weldon.

Caleb Ayers:

But yeah, that's I pretty much can't get cold again, kind of. While you were here, I mean, you talked about having, you know, put the work in work with your instructor. So like what was the process, like what was the day-to-day class, like you know, kind of, what are you doing every day? How are you preparing for a career in welding every day for the last four months?

Dylan Carter:

Coming to class Michaela, she'd go through some videos with us up there for about 30 minutes and she'd go through the video. It say, hey, this is this, this is that just explaining it. And then if you had any questions, she'd answer them. And then after that she'd take us down to the booths and we'd get right into it, get hands-on with it. And that was that was my favorite part, like getting to see it ask a question up there and then coming down here and then, even if I have more questions, she's coming in and answering my questions. And then for, I guess, weldon Career, I mean I guess just looking online, seeing how people I mean talking to these companies, that's seeing how their cultures that's been fun, like talking to them applying, being able to have options that's been something I've been kind of thankful for, to being able to have options that's that's been something I've I've been kind of thankful for being able to choose what company I really want to go to.

Dylan Carter:

Where are you going next? I'm going to Trident Maritime Systems. Where is that located? They have multiple locations, but I'm going to the one in Pascagoula, mississippi. Okay, so sticking closer to home, sticking, yeah, sticking close, which is me. That's a blessing to be able to go back home and still be able to have a great job. I wouldn't even call it a job, I mean call it a career. To me, that's truly a blessing.

Caleb Ayers:

When you were talking about your different job experiences before, that's the thing that popped in my head is none of those were career jobs. Those were you. None of those were career jobs. Those were, those were you, but none of those were career paths.

Dylan Carter:

You had jobs and now you are walking into a welding career yeah, and that's that's something I'm truly grateful for. Like I can, I feel like I can hold my head high, like I got a respected position and just it feels good like to be able to say I I don't just have a job, I have a career, and that's something I'm grateful for.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, that's really cool. What were kind of your expectations coming into this program as far as like what did you think it was going to be like?

Dylan Carter:

I'll be honest, I did not think I was going to get that many certifications, like. But like, going back to the instructor, my instructor Michaela like she'll build you up, she'll make you feel good, she'll work with you. My expectations were just like oh, if it's got this much, I guess free, the free rides, transportation class can't be that good. But you know what I'm saying and it's exceeded my expectations tenfold. This is a great place for, especially like the type of I don't know how you say it, I guess the type of school it is. Like it's it's tenfold what, what I thought it was going to be like.

Dylan Carter:

I feel like a lot of people should try to check this out, because I remember I talked to, uh, one of the ladies on my first day with student check-in and I was like why don't y'all have? I found y'all online but why don't y'all have more advertising for the local kids? Because a lot of my classmates are from all over the country. And she was like we don't know. And then I was like, hmm, I feel like, because this is a great opportunity.

Caleb Ayers:

I think we've had people from. Last time I checked it was from 46 different states that have come through and yeah, definitely we have people locally from here. But I mean, obviously you're from Alabama, there's people that come from California.

Caleb Ayers:

I mean, they come from everywhere and they go everywhere, and that's the cool part of this program is kind of just to see everyone come here for a little bit and then go back out to those separate employers where all of you guys get to make an impact for the defense of our nation at the end of the day.

Dylan Carter:

Yeah, it's been fun just seeing like my class just be kind of a melting pot of everybody from everywhere, like we've got one girl from Columbia and she's a great welder.

Caleb Ayers:

You were in the second shift, correct? Yes, sir. So when you go into your career, are you sticking second shift or do you know kind of what shifts?

Dylan Carter:

you're running. Yet I would like to stick with second shift, just because I've kind of gotten used to the normalcy of it. I'll get home probably 11.30, take a shower and then maybe watch like an episode or two and then go to bed and then wake up. So I've kind of gotten used to that routine. But if I need to work a morning shift I will, because that's what I was doing at the warehouse, working morning shifts. So I mean, whatever the job kind of wants me to do, I'm all open.

Caleb Ayers:

Is there anything else you would want to add about your experience, about kind of how ATDM has prepared you for your career?

Dylan Carter:

They will help you find a job, not even a career. Let me rephrase they will help you. We've had two job fairs and I got my job from the first job fair.

Caleb Ayers:

So that was how many weeks into the program were.

Dylan Carter:

You See, I didn't get the offer officially until like week eight or nine.

Caleb Ayers:

Which that's halfway through, for those at home. So that's pretty cool that you're halfway through the program and already getting job offers.

Dylan Carter:

And then I think it was only a couple weeks into the program that first job fair happened, and that was with Trident. So I've been working with them the whole way through, which has been cool. But I would say like, if, if you're looking for a career in this industry and you really want it, come here. Like four months later I'm leaving here with 14 certifications and a career, a guarantee. I start my job september 29, job September 29th, so you get one week off, yeah.

Dylan Carter:

Then back to it, which I'm thankful for, because I want to get back into the routine, just get back into some normalcy for me and get back to making some money and having a good career.

Caleb Ayers:

I really appreciate you being here. Congratulations and good luck in your career. Thank you All right, and next we have Angel Gallagher, who is a metrology graduate. Angel, thanks for being here. Thank you for the opportunity. So to start, I guess, just tell us a little bit about kind of your background, kind of before ATDM, and then how you ended up here.

Angel Gallaher:

Well, I come from a construction background, a lot of hands-on building things and, you know, essentially using my body to build structures and things like that. So I actually got a hold of the information about ETDM through my last job working warehouse machine operator and I asked him what was his five-year plan and he told me ATDM. And so I said what is that? You know, you know, is it? Is it real? Is it you know, is it? And he said, yeah, I think it's real. I think it's real. We get that question a lot, right? And so I went home, did some research and didn't quite get a concrete answer either. So I said you know what? I'm still going to try it. I looked through the courses and discovered metrology. That's the one that poked out the most. So I thought, okay, I think I could do this Essentially.

Caleb Ayers:

A couple months later I got an interview, multiple interviews, and I'm here Metrology for those who don't know, essentially measurement is the main idea of that. You're doing dimensional inspections, so what kind of? I guess what was your four months here? Like learning that, because I know that's a lot of math. I mean, all of these fields involve some math, but that one particularly is a lot of math.

Angel Gallaher:

Yeah, definitely a lot of math, I would say, coming into it. Because of my construction background I'm kind of used to measuring things not quite to the precision that they need to be with metrology, but the idea of it and getting used to picking up a tool, measuring, was just second nature for me. But in terms of metrology itself, it's using trigonometry, geometry. You're figuring out angles, how to set it up on a granite, things like that, and it's very interesting. You almost have to do it to really get a grasp on what is going on, because someone can ask you a question what's the circularity of this? You may think, well, what's you know? Is it a circle or not? But when you really dive into the complexity of what's going on, it's just so interesting.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, all the math sounds terrible to me, but I agree that it is interesting. But I would not want to be the one doing it. So what's I mean? I know, yeah, this program, 600 hours, four months. So I mean and obviously I'm sure you're doing stuff outside of class to kind of help, you know, keep these fit, make sure you're learning it all and building on that foundation. I mean what's as far as like the rigor, the challenge, like what's what have the last four months been like?

Angel Gallaher:

I would say the beginning months were the hardest because you are learning something new and the hardest part of learning something new is that initial shock. I would say it's like what is this? I don't understand it and there's so much to go over. But I will say the program does a good job of building you up, building you up to make that new thing easier. You're essentially given calipers or micrometers and from there you are given a tool that's still alien to you but you gain that knowledge. And I think that the school does a good job of finally getting to the CMM, which incorporates everything and essentially does it for you, but you understand the processes behind it and it's it's incredible and it's CMM coordinate measuring machine and those things I can't remember.

Caleb Ayers:

I mean, how precise do those get? They are precise, as far as I understand it. I mean like we're talking like human hair level.

Angel Gallaher:

Right.

Caleb Ayers:

Right, right, um. So yeah, we're. We're not talking about tenths of an inch, we're talking about much smaller tolerances than that, and so you came from working in construction. You said you're from New Jersey, correct? So what was kind of your experience of kind of just up and leaving New Jersey, coming to a random city, or what on paper looks like a random city in the middle of?

Angel Gallaher:

Virginia, right, not knowing if it was a scam or not was essentially. But the more interviews you do, the more people that you have to talk to to get into the program. You start to say like, okay, this may be real, but you know, to go out, I think, to do anything, great, I think you do have to do a little bit of risk. You know, on my part I was just confident in that it was real and that it was a real thing and I was ready to learn. You know, just full stop, just go for it. You know, and it turned out well, really well, what are your next steps now that you're graduating.

Angel Gallaher:

I have a job lined up that I'm pretty sure I'm going to get, so moving to Virginia probably will be my next move. Nice, but in terms of that, just continuing studying, never stopping.

Caleb Ayers:

How is what you're going to be doing now? You said you're working construction. Now you're hoping to have this job lined up with, I'm assuming, doing primarily metrology work. Do you view this as more of a career versus what you were doing before? How does what you were doing before compare to what you hope to be doing now?

Angel Gallaher:

I would consider working in construction a career. It's just for me. It definitely plays a tool in your body. So unless you go into specific and a specific area of construction, you're kind of limited. I would definitely consider this more. The paths in which you can grow in this career is it's very broad, you know. You can go into the assurance side of things, the quality control side of things. It's just so broad, um, and so, realistically, there's a lot of things I would like to do. You know you can't do them all, but uh, yeah, just to get out there and and see what's out there in terms of what, what are the jobs like, and um, but it all interests me, and especially in the way that they taught it there. And see what's out there in terms of what are the jobs like, but it all interests me, and especially in the way that they taught it.

Caleb Ayers:

There's many opportunities and, as we're talking right now, you're getting ready to graduate in 30 minutes, so congratulations on that. But what was kind of the experience like of? I mean, yeah, you showed up from another state, but there's people coming from all over the place. All of you guys are generally in the same housing. I mean training together 40 hours a week. So what's that process been like of kind of making friends, building camaraderie with your group?

Angel Gallaher:

It's important. It's more important than I think most people would think initially, the amount of work that you're given and because it is a shortened program, an accelerated program, you really have to be on your a-game and sometimes you aren't, and so you can kind of fall back on your students or teammates and they may understand a concept that you don't necessarily understand that well, and vice versa during the course. So to have that little bit of push, even when you're about to fall back, you know you have a guy who says, ah's easy, I can explain it to you in your free time and that really just helps you build up faster. I mean, obviously you have to put in the work yourself, but yeah, they're great. I met a lot of great people here.

Caleb Ayers:

I know ATDM has made more of an emphasis on students kind of getting involved in the community while they're here as well, and I know you were one that very much did so. So tell us a little bit about that kind of how you gave back to Danville, to Southern.

Angel Gallaher:

Virginia, while you were here. Well, to start, I helped maintain the garden. That was a big project. What's the garden? I don't actually know about this A garden, it's a community garden for the whole community. But we had several plots that we developed. Some people planted tomatoes, peppers, just continually watering it, maintaining it Cool. You know, just continually watering it, maintaining it cool. Um, yeah, so I was out there with a few people um daily cleaning up the, the den, uh, danville river river walk.

Angel Gallaher:

I think it's called yeah, cleaning that up trash wise. Um, I participated in the great race which I won first place, with another uh, teammate that's graduating today, heck yeah. So I was a bit everywhere. You know it was crazy. You're doing things that you don't think you normally would do, but when you do them you feel like you've grown.

Caleb Ayers:

I did not know there's that you guys run a community garden. That's. That's pretty sweet.

Dylan Carter:

Yeah.

Caleb Ayers:

As you're getting to graduate, getting ready to graduate right now, what's kind of going through your mind? What's your? Are you feeling?

Angel Gallaher:

relieved? Are you feeling everything? You know, I do feel relieved, but at the same time, because I want to continue learning. It's essentially, it never stops. But I'm going to be so happy to see my family. You know, it's been a while it's four months, yeah and they're coming. No, they couldn't make it. They have some things they have to tend to, but nonetheless, I will see them today, so I'm excited. You know, this day is kind of an accumulation of everything that I've done.

Caleb Ayers:

Thanks, for being here. Congratulations and good luck out there at graduation. Thank you so much.