With Nearly $500K Earned: Plumbing Program Delivers Results

Tulsa Tech’s impact is not a distant promise. It is already being realized in the workforce.

In less than two years since the program was reintroduced at the Lemley Memorial Campus, students in the Plumbing Technician program have earned nearly half a million dollars in the workforce, while still in class. What began as a new offering has quickly evolved into a direct pipeline to employment, with nearly half of the students currently taking the program already working in the field.

For Ben Graham, the value of the program was clear from the very beginning.

“It’s awesome. I get to see the full process,” he said. “The program hasn’t been here long, so being part of the first class means we’re learning as we go.”

That experience now extends beyond the classroom. Graham and his classmate, Kamryn Harding Lee, have both secured full-time positions with Platinum Mechanical. Their current project carries special significance, where they are helping construct the new Career Education Center on the Lemley Memorial Campus, just steps from where they began their training.

“It’s right down the hill from our classroom,” Harding Lee said. “That’s pretty incredible.”

Both students were selected by a company that has supported the program since its inception, a distinction that comes with both opportunity and responsibility.

“Being handpicked brings a level of pressure,” she said. “But it’s the kind that motivates you. You can see the future in front of you, especially being part of something new.”

That sense of opportunity is what drew them to the program. With a growing demand for skilled trades professionals, the pathway is clear.

“Our instructor talked about how much of the workforce is preparing to retire,” Graham said. “There’s a real need for plumbers, and hearing about the opportunities made it an easy decision to apply.”

For Graham, the program delivers more than technical training.

“We obviously learn a lot about plumbing, but we also build life skills,” he said. “Communication, work ethic, even budgeting. Those lessons carry over everywhere.”

Harding Lee agrees, noting the importance of preparation and honesty.

“I appreciated that Mr. (Aaron) DeBorde never sugarcoated anything,” she said. “He was upfront about the challenges I might face as the only female on a team. But the team at Platinum has been supportive, and I’ve had a great experience.”

For both students, launching a career so close to where they trained is a meaningful milestone. And seeing the collective earnings of their classmates reinforces the value of their choice.

“Nearly than $500,000 in salary shows just how much demand there is,” Harding Lee said.

“It’s a great reminder that there are many paths to a strong career,” Graham added.

Plumbing isa profession with roots stretching back to the earliest civilizations, and it remains essential to modern life and public health.

“If you don’t have safe, sanitary water, you don’t have a society,” Harding Lee said. “Our generation must carry that knowledge forward.”

For those ready to build a career with purpose, Tulsa Tech offers more than 80 full-time career training programs and hundreds of part-time classes designed to help students make their own path forward.