(WACO, Texas) – Texas State Technical College’s Welding Technology program is getting ready to put a spark in Waco’s evenings.
The program will begin offering night classes when the fall semester starts on Tuesday, Sept. 2. The evening session will add to the program’s existing morning and afternoon teaching periods.
“I think it’s with the upward trend of welding,” said Austin Allen, program team lead for TSTC’s Welding Technology program. “The popularity of it is expanding. A lot more nontraditional students are venturing in this career. This enables an opportunity they did not have before.”
Allen said night classes give students experience in what they may encounter once they graduate and begin working. He said new employees often do not get assigned to work morning shifts.
The program has more than 300 students in the summer semester, with that number projected to increase for the fall. The labs have more than 200 welding booths with 19 instructors teaching the students.
Night classes for welding have been done at other TSTC campuses, including Marshall and North Texas.
Russell Hutcherson, an instructor in the Welding Technology program in Waco, once taught at the Marshall campus. He will teach first-semester students when the new night classes start.
One advantage Hutcherson found of having night classes is that students get to work in cooler temperatures. He also said Marshall’s night classes brought together traditional students who worked during the day and nontraditional students.
“If someone is dedicated to something, they will do it,” he said. “It really allowed the nontraditional students to change their lives.”
Registration continues for the fall semester at TSTC. For more information, go to tstc.edu.