THE AMERICAN WELDER LEARNING TRACK · THE AMERICAN WELDER 126 JUNE 2012 Welding Technology students...
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THE AMERICAN WELDER LEARNING TRACK JUNE 2012 124 The primary goal of the College of Southern Idaho’s (CSI’s) welding pro- gram is to prepare students for success- ful careers in the rapidly expanding field of welding and fabrication. The curricu- lum is designed to meet the current needs of business and industry. Faculty members are selected on the basis of successful work experience as well as teaching qualifications, and the instruc- tion takes place in small classes to encourage students’ full participation. Evening classes have maintained good attendance levels. Many local companies send their personnel there for training. The spacious 300-acre Twin Falls campus offers many recreational and education- al attractions, including a 50-ft dome planetarium, the largest facility of its kind in the state. Welding Training Pathways The welding program has undergone significant changes over the past four years that have resulted in an updated curriculum, new faculty and staff, new equipment, and an expanded welding lab featuring 31 welding booths, 15 roll- around stations, and new automation features added to enhance safety. Terry Patterson, CSI Trade and Industry Department chair (Fig. 1), explained, “We have two primary path- ways that students can choose for their education: A technical certificate, which is generally around a one-year program; and a two-year Associate of Applied Science degree offering. We also have some options for students if they want to go to work immediately with a postsec- ondary certificate.” College of Southern Idaho Offers a Unique Welder Training Experience HOWARD M. WOODWARD ([email protected]) is associate editor of the Welding Journal. Fig. 1 — A recent College of Southern Idaho welding class is shown with faculty members (front row, from left) Lab Assistant Cody Thornton, Instructor Juan Martinez, Trade and Industry Department Chair Terry Patterson, and Instructor Kent Parish. BY HOWARD M. WOODWARD Expanded facilities and smaller classes deliver an improved training environment 2 College of Southern Idaho 6-2012_Layout 1 5/10/12 12:52 PM Page 124
Transcript of THE AMERICAN WELDER LEARNING TRACK · THE AMERICAN WELDER 126 JUNE 2012 Welding Technology students...
THE AMERICAN WELDERLEARNING TRACK
JUNE 2012124
The primary goal of the College ofSouthern Idaho’s (CSI’s) welding pro-gram is to prepare students for success-ful careers in the rapidly expanding fieldof welding and fabrication. The curricu-lum is designed to meet the currentneeds of business and industry. Facultymembers are selected on the basis ofsuccessful work experience as well asteaching qualifications, and the instruc-tion takes place in small classes toencourage students’ full participation.Evening classes have maintained goodattendance levels. Many local companies
send their personnel there for training.The spacious 300-acre Twin Falls campusoffers many recreational and education-al attractions, including a 50-ft domeplanetarium, the largest facility of itskind in the state.
Welding Training Pathways
The welding program has undergonesignificant changes over the past fouryears that have resulted in an updatedcurriculum, new faculty and staff, newequipment, and an expanded welding lab
featuring 31 welding booths, 15 roll-around stations, and new automationfeatures added to enhance safety.
Terry Patterson, CSI Trade andIndustry Department chair (Fig. 1),explained, “We have two primary path-ways that students can choose for theireducation: A technical certificate, whichis generally around a one-year program;and a two-year Associate of AppliedScience degree offering. We also havesome options for students if they want togo to work immediately with a postsec-ondary certificate.”
College of Southern Idaho Offers a Unique Welder Training Experience
HOWARD M. WOODWARD ([email protected]) is associate editor
of the Welding Journal.
Fig. 1 — A recent College of Southern Idaho welding class is shown with faculty members (front row, from left) Lab Assistant CodyThornton, Instructor Juan Martinez, Trade and Industry Department Chair Terry Patterson, and Instructor Kent Parish.
BY HOWARD M. WOODWARDExpanded facilities and smaller classes deliver animproved training environment
2 College of Southern Idaho 6-2012_Layout 1 5/10/12 12:52 PM Page 124
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The SENSE Program
The CSI welding program is in com-plete alignment with the AmericanWelding Society’s Schools Excellingthrough National Skills StandardsEducation (SENSE) program, whichoffers students an industry-recognizedcredential accepted worldwide. TheSENSE program was developed by AWSto create a benchmark of competenciesfor training facilities to follow.
The college has been utilizing SENSEtraining for three years, and the resultshave been excellent. Previously, CSIgraduates left the welding program withgood welding skills. Now, in addition todeveloping good welding skills, they areprepared with knowledge of blueprintreading, weld testing and inspection, andhave greater confidence in their abilitiesto function and excel in this challengingfield.
Program Details
The program begins with basic intro-ductions and continues on to each areaof welding, including gas tungsten arcwelding (GTAW), gas metal arc welding(GMAW), flux cored arc welding(FCAW), and shielded metal arc welding(SMAW) of plate and pipe, and thermalcutting processes. Testing and weldingqualifications are made available toqualified students. As technological andinterpersonal skills are also essential tosuccess in the welding field, additionalcourses are required in the areas of com-munications, computer applications,mathematics, leadership, supervision,and professional development skills.
Fig. 3 — Student Freddy Lopez said,“It’s really a hands-on experience andwe do a little bit of everything here.”Lopez has already decided to pursue acareer in the sanitary welding field.
Fig. 2 — Welding students KendonFreeman (left) and Shay Capson areprogressing well with their gravity carproject. Freeman’s goal is to becomeAWS certified so he will qualify for better-paying jobs.
LEARNING TRACK
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Welding Technology students areintroduced to blueprint reading, indus-trial safety, applied leadership, metal-lurgy, machining operations, weldingprocedures, material management, first-aid and CPR, ornamental iron work,and metal forging (Figs. 2, 3). The per-sonal assets necessary to succeed in thisprogram are a desire to work with metaland be a part of a team; and possessgood hand-eye coordination and prob-lem-solving skills.
Welding Personnel
The welding course instructorsinclude Associate Professors KentParish and Juan Martinez (Figs. 4, 5),both AWS Certified Welding Inspectors.Certified Welding Educators, and bothpossessing 25 years’ experience in indus-try. Parish has four years of teachingexperience at CSI and Martinez has oneyear teaching experience at CSI and ten years teaching at Boise StateUniversity’s Selland College. CodyThornton (Fig. 1), a graduate of the col-lege’s Applied Science — Welding andMetal Fabrication program and aCertified Welder, serves as lab assistant.
Martinez said, “We have to respond,and we do respond very well to thechanging technical requirements for thewelding field. The college is strategical-ly placed regionally near oil fields,mines, and wind power. There are somevery, very lucrative opportunities com-ing up for students who successfullycomplete our program. Especially in thewind-generation and energy areas.”
Martinez and his students recentlyvisited a welding engineering facilitydesigning precision planetary probes.
LEARNING TRACKFig. 4 — Instructor Kent Parish (left)and a student review the fine points ofweld inspection.
Fig. 5 — Instructor Juan Martinez(right) works with Daniel McCrorey inthe College of Southern Idaho weldinglab.
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He said, “Most of these students arehardworking blue-collar students withfarm and agriculture backgrounds. Whynot aspire to be a NASA welding engi-neer? Why not aspire to weld underwa-ter in exotic locations? We have to pro-vide our students every opportunity tobe successful. Welding is not just build-ing bridges and buildings, it’s a whole artculture.”
Parish noted, “What we have in theCSI welding program that a lot of theacademic programs don’t have is that weknow our students inside and out. Weknow their personal lives and the littleglitches they’ve had to deal with. Wehave them in here a minimum of 20hours a week. We know and care aboutour students.
“Our students are involved in thecommunity. We have built targets for alocal gun club, we’ve built rolling chairsfor a young man who was paralyzed over-seas in Iraq who wants to compete in theParaplegic Olympics, and we have helpedto design a mono-ski that’s being used inSun Valley to help injured veterans.”
Welding Program Outlook
Gerald Beck, CSI president said,“Welding was one of the first profession-al technical programs here at theCollege of Southern Idaho. And no mat-ter what the economy has done, weldinghas always pulled through with goodplacement, and good numbers of stu-dents wanting to take welding. The jobselection of where they go across theUnited States and out onto drilling rigs,underground, and everything else theydo is just an exciting thing to witness.
“(CSI) students are able to get a lotof field experience as well as what theydo actually at the college. Each year sev-eral of the welding students put togethervarious art projects that go up for sale.We have quite a community following.
“I think welding will continue to growin the west. Therefore, I think that theprogram has a very positive future.
“I see welding students coming back10, 15, 20 years after they graduatedwanting to know where their teacher is.The same thing with the teachers, outlooking at where their students havegone and how well they've done in theindustry. Are they foremen, have theymoved into management? It’s exciting to
see there is such a bond between our stu-dents and the teachers. Welding is oneprogram that definitely develops thatbond.”
Outreach Training Facilities
Technology Dean Todd Schwarznoted, “We now have the equipment todo mobile training, to actually reach outand do custom training for business andindustry and maybe even get into somehigh schools. Relationships we have withindustry and our secondary partners arebetter than they’ve been in the last tenyears. The trajectory for the quality ofthe programs has been on a pretty steepupslope and I really don’t see that slow-ing down any time soon. We really want-ed to set ourselves apart and we're get-ting very close to being there.
Patterson added, “Through a grant,we were able to put together a mobilewelding trailer so that we can take ourtechniques and equipment out to highschools and to industry and basicallytake the lab to their doorsteps. That’ssomething that will be starting this year.If you pay attention to the labor market,statistics as far as jobs and the babyboomers retiring, there’s going to be ashortage of skilled technical people,specifically in the welding industry. Noquestion about it.”
The Important ‘Other Stuff’
The all-important questions aboutgaining a college education are readilyanswered in the college catalog availableonline. Included are answers to tuition,
housing, and other expenses, classschedules, on-campus athletics, localattractions, library facilities, as well ashow to apply for tuition assistance fromscholarships, grants, and loans. Visit theCSI Web site (www.csi.edu) to downloadthe catalog, take a virtual tour of thecampus, and request a “Spend a Daywith Us” personalized tour of the cam-pus to meet the faculty and staff andhave all of your questions answered inperson.♦
College of Southern Idahowww.csi.edu; [email protected]
315 Falls Ave., PO Box 1238Twin Falls, ID 83303-1238
(208) 733-9554(800) 680-0274 (Idaho and Nevada)
Contacts:Terry Patterson (208) 732-6402
CSI Trade and Industry Office(208) 732-6300
LEARNING TRACK
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