New Jersey.

High schools and colleges aren't the only ones celebrating the Class of 2024.

In Sicklerville, the state's second ever class of commercial divers recently graduated from the Carpenters Union Commercial Dive Center, the first in the country offering construction workers training in off shore welding.

As senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports, the union workers are now equipped with critical and rare skills needed for a booming industry.

I have a graduate now, 2024 of commercial diving.

Sapphire Fuentes is one of 13 graduates who just completed a 16 week commercial diving certification program here at the eastern Atlantic State's Carpenters Technical Center.

I've always wanted to be an underwater welder like me, now 33 years old, and I'm living my dream.

It's amazing.

This is the beginning of their careers as underwater construction specialists.

You'd be forgiven for not knowing much about this field.

It's a specialty of underwater work that's critical to our infrastructure.

But a job that requires a very specific skill set.

This is such a specialized trade.

When we're talking about underwater construction, underwater welding, underwater demolition and things of that nature.

There's only a few thousand divers in the United States as we speak right now that actually do this work.

So we needed to find a way to train more and more people because folks are getting older.

All the experienced folks, the baby boomers, the Gen Xers.

So the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters purchased this space in Sickler ville, where they train three groups a year.

And because it's funded by their nonprofit arm, students attend for free.

Students like Joshua Denney.

I can do it.

Whatever I decide that I want to do.

I really want it.

I know I can do it.

That's just one of Danny's big takeaways from finishing this extremely challenging course.

Another one.

How to set up dive stations.

How to set up the divers hands.

That's a big thing, because every station is going to need someone to set it up.

So that was an important skill.

We'll have divers work on our bulkhead structure, our pier structure.

We'll learn how to cut with a hydraulic chainsaw.

They'll learn how to drill holes with a timber auger.

We'll do underwater burning.

We'll do underwater welding in this moon pool here.

Divers will learn how to overcome the hazards of using high amounts of heat in the water.

And in this area, we have this nice stage down here that's about 15 feet down.

And the divers will weld on those tables.

Right now, welding is a hot commodity with all the infrastructure money that's coming out in the future.

With the Biden infrastructure plan, there's going to be a ton of opportunity for youth in America to go out and find careers.

And that's what we're doing here.

Bill Snyder says most of the jobs available to these graduates will be prevailing wage and all will be union jobs.

They'll be able to work on offshore wind projects.

They'll be able to work on bridge infrastructure projects and new ports and roads and bridges.

So they have a lot of opportunity just outside of just diving.

They can also be pile drivers as well.

I want to take this as far as I can take you.

I feel like I'm ready, you know, just to dive, you know, get my gear on.

You know, I feel comfortable in the water as long as I'm given a task.

Like, I feel like if I feel that I need.

From here, these graduates will move on to an apprenticeship program.

They'll be employed through that process in one of the specialized careers they've been trained for in Sicklerville.

I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.