Photo Courtesy of Kirkwood Community College
April has been recognized as National Welding Month by the American Welding Society since 1996. The Kirkwood Washington County Regional Center offers local students a unique opportunity to get involved in the trade, learning through the free welding-focused academy experience for high school students. Welding students Steven Prinsloo of Washington High School and Alan Nass of Highland High School, along with instructor Jim Otto, spoke this week with KCII news about how they became interested in the field, the academy workspace and what they’ve taken away from the course,
Prinsloo said, “I’ve been interested in welding for a long time. When we moved to the US, and I heard that you get college credit in high school and I found out that they did welding, I just jumped at the opportunity! If you have the basics down, anybody could be a welder.”
Nass continued, “We weld all the time on the farm. It’s a good skill to have. Make sure to clean your steel all the way. TIG welding, and learning how to set up your machine.”
Otto explained, “I’ve been in the welding and maintenance field for about 45 years. I’ve always liked working with my hands. Kirkwood has a State-of-the-Art facility. We have $750,000 to $1 million worth of equipment in our workspace. Hopefully we get them excited about welding and machining and send them out into the world. I hope students take away that it’s a part of the job to be on time, to be ready to go. Safety is our number one priority at Kirkwood. The trades are very important for these young students, they are the backbone of the US. We need these young men and women to go out into the world fix things. This is a great segue way into the world or college.”
The full program of courses offered include introduction to fabrication, safety and health of welders, print reading and welding symbol interpretation, gas arc short circuit and spray transfer, tungsten arc welding for carbon steel, mill and lathe operation, thermal cutting processes and shielding metal arc welding. Summer classes at Kirkwood begin May 21st.