Watts recently marked the 10th anniversary of the Watts Works Learning Center by welcoming plumbing students and educators from Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School to our North Andover facility for a half-day of hands-on learning, industry education, and career exploration.
The October 7 event gave students an opportunity to experience the plumbing industry firsthand, connect with Watts leaders and employees, and see how continued training can support a successful career in the skilled trades.
Connecting Students With the Future of the Trades
Students began the day with a tour of the Learning Center, where they explored its classrooms, working mechanical rooms, and wet lab while learning how Watts provides hands-on training for industry professionals.
Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairperson of the Board Robert J. Pagano, Jr. welcomed the students and spoke about the important role skilled tradespeople play in protecting public health, supporting communities, and keeping essential water, plumbing, heating, and cooling systems operating safely. Chief Operating Officer André Dhawan also met with the students and reinforced Watts’ commitment to supporting the next generation of industry professionals.
Throughout the visit, students participated in presentations about plumbing as a career, the importance of backflow prevention, and the future of the industry. They then put their skills to work in the Learning Center’s wet lab, where they disassembled and reassembled Watts backflow preventers with guidance from the Watts training team. The day concluded with an interactive quiz that gave students another opportunity to test what they had learned and compete for prizes.
About Essex Tech
Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School, commonly known as Essex Tech, is a career and technical high school in Danvers, Massachusetts. The school’s history dates to the founding of Essex Agricultural School, locally known as Essex Aggie, in 1913. Its current campus opened in 2014 and was designed to bring together academic learning and real-world technical education.
Students can explore Career Technical & Agricultural Education pathways across construction, agriculture, health sciences, manufacturing, engineering, technology, and service fields. The school’s construction programs include plumbing, HVAC/R, electrical, masonry, and construction craft labor. Its mission emphasizes academic and technical excellence, intellectual growth, professionalism, determination, and citizenship.
Essex Tech’s hands-on approach gives students experience in learning environments that reflect real industry settings. By connecting classroom instruction with practical problem-solving, the school helps prepare students for apprenticeships, further education, professional licensing, and careers in the skilled trades.
Building a Partnership
Following the anniversary event, Watts donated Haws RIVIVE® Hydration Stations™ and a Powers IntelliStation® 2 digital mixing valve to the school. With supervision, plumbing students will install the equipment on their campus, giving them another opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge to products and systems used in the field.
These contributions are intended to provide more than new equipment. By involving students in the installation process, the partnership gives them practical experience on commercial products while helping enhance the learning environment for future classes.
Celebrating a Decade of Learning
Since opening in April 2016, the North Andover Learning Center has provided contractors, engineers, wholesalers, and other industry professionals with opportunities to build product knowledge and strengthen their skills through hands-on training.
Welcoming Essex Tech students offered a meaningful way to celebrate the Learning Center’s first decade while turning the focus toward the people who will shape the industry’s next chapter. The event also reflected a shared commitment between Watts and Essex Tech to education, craftsmanship, innovation, and preparing people for careers once they leave the walls of the school.
Ten years of training are behind us, with a future of possibilities still ahead.