The welding program at Lethbridge College gives students the opportunity to train on-the-job and get in-class training at the same time. Eighty per cent of the program is apprenticing with a certified welder, the other twenty per cent is classroom labs and theory.
The college offers two apprenticeships related to welding; one of them is a regular welding apprenticeship and the other is a wire process operator apprenticeship. Both apprenticeships offer the same career opportunities and the same courses.
Eight to 12 weeks of classroom training is needed each year in order to graduate. 1,500 hours are needed for the first period of technical training.
For the second period, 1,800 hours of work experience is needed. After those hours are completed and they have passed all their exams, students are eligible to receive their journeyman certificate.
An instructor in the program, Donnie Charlebois, teaches first-year theory, first-year oxy-acetylene cutting and third-year tag welding process.
“Well for the first-year theory intake application is to safety and the cutting processes and the torch setups and then for the third-year tag welding, it’s a GTAW. Gas, tungsten, arc-welding.”
Charlebois believes that welding is an important job because it’s involved in agriculture, the oil industry and infrastructure.
A third-year student in the program, Justin Nicholson, really likes his instructors.
“I would have to say the teachers themselves like Dave Heins or Abe and even Donnie. Like they’re all good, they’re all very presumable guys. It makes coming here a little bit easier and takes some of the stress off of you, that’s for sure, so.”
After he graduates from the program, Nicholson would like to do pipeline construction or work in the service rigs.
Employment opportunities for welders is expected to grow by three per cent by 2029. Welders are going to be needed to rebuild bridges, highways and buildings.
Despite COVID-19, students in the welding program are still able to get their hands-on experience at the college because the program is being offered in a blended format.