QUALIFICATIONS

Persons interested in the Welding Technology program are given credit for "life work experiences" that are applicable to specific course requirements.  High school courses in welding, machine shop, technical drawing, mathematics, and other industrial arts areas are desirable but not required.  Prospective students should be in good health and have good eyesight.  They may wear corrective lenses.  

PROGRAM FOCUS

The Welding Technology program is designed to prepare students for careers in three major areas of the welding industry.  These career areas are manufacturing, construction, and maintenance/repair.  The program provides hands-on skills and technical training in the areas of GMAW-MIG (wire-feed), flux-cored arc, shielded metal arc (stick), gas tungsten arc-tig, and pulse arc welding processes.  In addition, skills will be developed in plasma and manual fuel gas cutting processes.  In addition to the welding skills development, units of instruction and practice are provided in metal fabrication to develop craft skills and quality required to construct and manufacture products.  

Related areas of instruction include jig and fixture building, interpretation of engineering drawings, blueprint reading, metallurgy, geometric tolerancing, and the AWS Standard Welding Symbol interpretation. 

An integral part of the skills training is a "qualification-certification" testing program, designed to qualify students to the AWS Structural Code, the ASME Pipe Pressure Code, and in accordance with AWS QC-3 standards. 

EMPLOYMENT

Welding jobs can be found in almost every community of our nation, as well as around the world.  Pay scales and placement for graduates have been excellent in the past.   Job classifications for graduates may include combination welder, repair and maintenance welder, and precision sheet metal welder; or the graduate may have the job description of a specialist in engineering, inspection, or a number of other areas of the welding trade.