Western Welding Academy: On the Road to Inspire America’s Youth
They are weld pros rolling across America in a rock star bus, tools in tow. Their music is the popping, crackling and hissing of metal turning molten. Their message is that the youth of America can build themselves up by building America, including the U.S. Navy’s ships.
The group is Western Welding Academy (WWA), one of the nation’s premier trades schools. Beyond hosting eager trainees from across the country year-round at their elite outpost in northeastern Wyoming, leaders there felt a greater calling to increase awareness and enthusiasm for skilled trades.
“The trades are so important to America,” said Tyler Sasse, the founder and CEO of WWA. “Economically, everything, our whole national defense, relies on these tradespeople, and the more we can bring that energy and use our influence on social media to drive that, that’s what we’re doing.”
Thus, the Blue Collar Tour was born in 2020.
Each year, a crew from WWA embarks on a multi-month, nationwide journey, stopping at schools for hours-long pep rallies filled with welding demonstrations, information, giveaways and encouragement for youth. Each day’s events are captured by a multimedia team and distributed on WWA social media accounts, which are followed by hundreds of thousands of people.
There is no sugarcoating in WWA’s talks to teens. The Blue Collar Tour team notes that a deficient skilled-trades workforce is a national security threat. That’s why WWA’s annual treks are being supported through a Navy-funded partnership with BlueForge Alliance under BFA’s BuildSubmarines.com brand. Inspiration for young people seeking meaningful careers in the Navy’s Maritime Industrial Base is important fuel on the journey toward a safer country.
“The most important people of our economy? They’re these tradespeople. The most important people behind our defense industry? They’re these tradespeople,” Sasse said.
For 2025, the Blue Collar Tour schedule included 31 stops in 21 states reaching more than 4,000 students in-person across a 52-day stretch, ending at WWA’s Gillette, Wyoming home base. Stop 17 was in Duncanville, Texas, just southwest of Dallas. It was 5,700 miles into WWA’s 10,000-mile journey.
Duncanville High School’s event was attended by their top welding students who leapt head-and-mask-first into the presentations, competitions and consultations with WWA’s experts. The teens took home plenty of swag and prizes. Most importantly, they gained perspective on what American welders earn and provide, including in the defense and maritime industries.
“They contribute to the U.S.,” said senior Levon Butler. “We need that. I feel like that’s an important role and we need those types of people in the world.”
“It’s a big foundation in pretty much everything that is built, and it’s a really necessary, very important job that needs more workers, more people in the trade of welding,” explained junior Linda Martinez.
Butler and Martinez will be among the student stars of a video recapping that day’s tour stop. WWA says their 2024 content, including from that year’s Blue Collar Tour, earned just shy of 1 billion organic views. It’s a number the organization aims to far exceed in 2025.
“At the end of the day, if you’re a young person that really wants to have a massive impact and do something really meaningful and really contribute to your country in a meaningful way, go to BuildSubmarines.com,” Sasse said. “That’s your place to start because the people there are absolutely crushing it, and they will show you the path to success.”
Attendees at tour stops and social subscribers nationwide are seeing the value of trades and the need for tradespeople. Thanks to WWA and their showcasing of maritime manufacturing careers, America’s youth is learning how skills ensure America’s national defense and Americans’ professional prosperity.
(Photos courtesy Western Welding Academy)
