Ross Gallabrese PROMOTING TRADES — Isaac Evans of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 495, discussed pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs during the March 18 meeting of the Steubenville Rotary Club.

STEUBENVILLE — Not everyone who graduates from high school will find college to be a perfect fit, but good career opportunities exist in the trades.

That’s the message Isaac Evans shared with members of the Steubenville Rotary Club.

A graduate of Edison High School, Evans is in a good position to offer that reminder — he’s the director of apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship for the Cambridge-based Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 495.

“Everybody had told me my entire career that I needed to do something where I was going to college, that I needed to get that college degree,” Evans said during the March 18 meeting at the JeffCo Event Center. Joining the Rotarians were student guests from Toronto High School who are pursuing careers in the trades.

“I took all of the tests with the guidance counselors, and every one of them told me that I had to do something where I worked with my hands. But, mom, dad and a bunch of people who had never gone to college were telling me that college was the best. So, I went to college, and I had a lot of fun during my one year of college.”

It turns out, the trades were a better fit for Evans. His great-grandfather, he explained, was one of the founding members of the former Steubenville-based Local 490. His grandfather and father were pipefitters, too.

Local 495 covers a large region — its jurisdiction includes the counties of Coshocton, Guernsey, Holmes, Muskingum, Noble, Tuscarawas, Jefferson, Harrison and portions of Morgan, Columbiana and Carroll in Ohio and Brooke and Hancock counties in West Virginia.

The pre-apprenticeship program serves eight high schools in the region, he said, including Edison and the Jefferson County Vocational School.

According to Evans, there often can be a misperception about what those who are involved in the trades actually do. He said, for example, that when he talks with high school students, they can be turned off when they hear the word plumbers associated with the local’s name.

“Generally speaking, we are not the guys who are going into the sewers and that stuff,” Evans explained.

His definition of the work they do, he said, is simple: “If it is round and something flows through it, we’re the people who are putting it in.”

Evans said he helped with the construction of the hotel at Mountaineer Casino Resort, as well as the piping for the lines that come in above the beds in local hospitals. His father, he added, did work on nuclear power plants.

He acknowledged that the stereotypes for people involved in the trades have usually been centered around men, but added that there is no mold for who a construction worker is. There are three women in his first-year apprenticeship class, and, statistically, they make better welders, he said.

The pre-apprentice program, he said, has 21 juniors and 16 seniors and includes six girls. There have been 28 new students accepted for the coming year, he added, explaining there’s a rigorous system that must be navigated. That includes having a grade-point average of 2.0, a 90% attendance rate and an interview with the board.

Attendance is critical, Evans said, adding that he can work with someone if they have the drive to work every day.

His career advice, which was directed mainly to the high school students, was fairly simple.

“Have you ever heard the phrase, find something that you love and do it?” Evans said. “I’m a realist, and to me it’s a crock — what I found out is that I found something that I like to do, which has let me afford the things that I love to do.”

Information about the apprenticeship program can be obtained by calling 740-439-3623 or 888-432-0495.