By Curtis Turner

The Lamar Community College Welding program recently went through a facelift and redesign.   The facelift involved doubling the space of the state of the art welding shop that previously housed the program.  The welding shop now has sixteen self-ventilated welding booths with excellent equipment available for students to use in training. 

The program redesign involved the addition of intermediate and advanced certificates as well as the opportunity for students to complete an Associates of Applied Science (AAS) degree in Fabrication Welding.  The original program offered only one certificate which had elements of the current basic and intermediate welding certificates.   The new design allows for students to complete each certificate in a single semester providing employment opportunities at each level.  If students elect to complete the AAS degree they need to pass all three certificates along with five additional core courses.  Students are able to take some of these or equivalent courses through concurrent enrollment options while still in high school. 

Since improvements were implemented in spring 2015, the program has operated at near capacity with most courses filling up each semester. Although this has been very exciting, the goal of any program is to have students complete successfully and, ultimately, obtain jobs within the field.  Accordingly, the fruits of this labor are starting to be realized as the LCC welding program, after the redesign, is starting to see an increased number of completers. 

LCC Welding is especially proud to announce that two students, Josh Forgey and Clay Davis, have completed the Associates of Applied Science degree in December with three more expected to complete after the spring 2016 semester.  In addition to earning all three certificates, the two enrolled in and passed courses including Introduction to Business, Interpersonal Communication, Construction Ethics, Technical English and Technical Mathematics.  These courses are in place to provide additional skills necessary for students to be successful in the workplace. 

A number of other students also completed the certificates in the fall 2015 semester.  Eleven students completed the basic welding certificate, one student completed the intermediate certificate, and two completed the advanced certificate.  LCC will soon start collecting employment information on its recent graduates.  There are a variety of lucrative opportunities available for students in fabrication welding and LCC hopes to guide all graduates to a great job providing a livable wage. 

For more information on the Welding program at LCC, visit www.lamarcc.edu/welding.