Sen. Mark Kelly tours center that trains people to work in semiconductor plants

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article misstated the amount of money Arizona's TSMC semiconductor plant has received under the CHIPS and Science Act.

Travis Laird, a former middle school math teacher, on Friday showed Sen. Mark Kelly around the Arizona Pipe Trade Joint Apprenticeship Center, which trains people for many different trades, including those who work at the TSMC semiconductor plant in north Phoenix.

Laird, now an assistant training director at the center, was 35 when he transitioned from being a teacher to an apprentice at the center.

"You really learn on the job day one, they know you're an apprentice, so they mentor you on the job," Laird said. "In that process, you come down here (to the center) and learn in that more school environment."

The five-year program has students working trade jobs while attending classes at the center. Right now, the program trains more than 1,000 students who will finish as professionals in plumbing, pipefitting, HVAC-refrigeration, semiconductor manufacturing and other trades.

TSMC is hiring thousands: What are the salaries for roles at the semiconductor facility?

Apprentices learn general skills before picking a specialty, usually around their third year in the program. Skills include learning how to weld carbon steel, use laser scanning, build information modeling and more.

The center, which spans six acres in central Phoenix, has 300 apprentices who each year graduate as journeymen from the program. The academically and physically rigorous program remains competitive with a decent waitlist. Individuals from all backgrounds — from people straight out of high school to late career switchers — are apprentices in the program.

"The folks that come through these programs are able to work while they're being trained tuition-free," Kelly, D-Ariz., said. "They can actually make a wage while they're learning a trade that will pay a wage that you can actually raise a family on."

Apprentices in the program start with a wage of $20 an/hour with benefits. They don't have to pay tuition for the workforce training, thus graduating debt free, and they receive raises several times throughout their five-year apprenticeship.

This was Kelly's second trip to the apprentice center because of his vested interest in this field. He helped to develop and pass the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022, which plans to boost domestic microchip manufacturing.

"We've got these growing industries (in Arizona): semiconductors, renewable energy, automated vehicles and others," Kelly said. "It's important that we have the workforce to support these companies."

Arizona's TSMC semiconductor plant, which is located in north Phoenix and is expected to receive money from the CHIPS Act, recently announced that they would be investing $15 million in the apprenticeship center, Kelly said. Those funds will go toward additional facilities at the center, including a four-story building and parking garage, with the hope that the number of students learning at the facility could increase by up to 2,000 students.

"That's really good to help our economy," Kelly said of TSMC's investment.

Kelly toured the facility to learn more about the training that apprentices received, met and talked with apprentices about their work and even did a bit of welding himself. Kelly took the opportunity to further tour the facility by using his welding skills, which he learned at the Merchant Marine Academy while in the U.S. Navy, in the center's welding lab.

"We're in a good place right now here in Arizona, we gotta just keep going," Kelly said.

More: Sen. Mark Kelly tours Arizona Pipe Trade Joint Apprenticeship Center

Reach reporter Morgan Fischer at morgan.fischer@gannett.com or on X, formally known as Twitter, @morgfisch.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Kelly tours AZ Pipe Trade Joint Apprenticeship Center in Phoenix