Teachers and Students Provide OneonOne Assistance The welding laboratory at the college has been designed specifically to facilitate learning — Fig. 2. “Our welding lab is designed with a large Ushaped instruction table in the center of the lab, which allows the instructor — or student — to be in the center and students surrounding for demonstrations,” said Gahr. According to Kyle Anspach, who finished seventh in the SkillsUSA 2016 competition, the instructors are effective at teaching students how to perform proper techniques, as well as how to learn from their mistakes. “They don’t just show you how to weld; they also show you how to mess up,” he said. “This is a very good strategy because you won’t know what you’re doing wrong if you’ve never done it before.” If students need additional attention, the school also offers free, instructor supervised welding tutoring. According to Scott, “Having one-onone time with an instructor helps you fine-tune your welding to succeed in the class.” Unique to the program is the inclusion of one-on-one assistance provided by student navigators. These are seasoned students who work with students for early identification of academic and nonacademic issues in order to link them to resources that can help them, explained Gahr. Stackable Certifications Build to a Degree Lakeland Community College delivers stackable certificates that allow students to work toward a degree at their own pace. The program offers six technical courses: Oxyfuel Cutting, Carbon Arc Gouging, and Plasma Cutting; Shielded Metal Arc Welding; Gas Tungsten Arc Welding; Flux Cored Arc Welding; Gas Metal Arc Welding; and Pipe Welding – all of which result in individual academic certificates. These six technical courses, combined with Arc Welding Fundamentals, Introduction to Metal Fabrication, and Safety, add up to an industrial welding certificate. The certificate builds up to an associate of technical studies in industrial welding when students take general studies, business, and AWS certification preparation courses. “The flexibility offered by stackable certifications allow students to move in and out of the program with ease depending on their academic and career goals,” explained Gahr. Renovating for the Future Due to increasing interest in the program, the school plans to expand its welding space and curriculum. Presently, it offers one lab that consists of 16 welding booths with a fume extraction system, as well as various types of welding and machining equipment — Fig. 3. “The renovation involves repurposing existing classroom space in our engineering building for the welding program,” Gahr said, which “will allow us to open a second welding lab with the potential for an additional 12–16 booths.” The new curriculum will also differentiate between basic and advanced welding. “The basic welding curriculum will permit students to focus on horizontal and flat positions for all welding processes, giving them more opportunity to hone their skills and develop muscle memory,” Gahr explained. The advanced welding curriculum will progress to all processes in vertical and overhead positions. It may also include repair welding, automated and robotic welding, weld testing and inspection, and resistance welding. “The curriculum continues to evolve as we align our courses with the workforce demands of employers in northeast Ohio,” affirmed Gahr. For More Information To learn more about Lakeland Community College’s Welding N.O.W. program, contact Linn Gahr at (440) 525- 7516, e-mail lgahr2@lakelandcc.edu, or Katie Smyntek at (440) 525-7541, e-mail ksmyntek2@lakelandcc.edu. THE AMERICAN WELDER 94 WELDING JOURNAL / DECEMBER 2016 KATIE PACHECO (kpacheco@aws.org) is associate editor of the Welding Journal. For info, go to aws.org/adindex WJ
Welding Journal | December 2016
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