(ABILENE, Texas) – Excitement is building for the fall semester at Texas State Technical College’s Abilene and Sweetwater campuses.
Three new technical programs will debut when the fall semester begins on Tuesday, Sept. 2. The Abilene campus will offer the Plumbing and Pipefitting Technology program, while the Sweetwater campus will offer new Building Construction Technology and Culinary Arts programs.
Students enrolling in the programs will be eligible to receive $500 scholarships, said Lance Eastman, associate provost of TSTC’s West Texas campuses.
Meanwhile, the push continues to build-out learning spaces, purchase equipment and hire faculty members.
The Abilene campus’s new Power and Mechanical Center will be the location for the Plumbing and Pipefitting Technology program. One feature of the program’s learning space is an indoor “sandbox” to practice trenching work.
The program will offer an associate degree and certificate of completion.
“We need other areas (of the state) where we can actually get students trained and put our educated technicians,” said Jimmy Bibb, TSTC’s director of alignment for Plumbing and Pipefitting Technology.
The Building Construction Technology program will have two instructors and offer a certificate of completion along with industry-based certifications.
“There is a need for a lot of tradesmen and tradeswomen in the industry, and we are trying to fill that need and spread out through the state to fill those demands,” said Rick Vargas, TSTC’s director of alignment for Building Construction Technology.
The Culinary Arts program is making a return to West Texas. The program was previously offered in Sweetwater and later in Abilene. Now, the hybrid program will be housed in the Temple Dickson building on the Sweetwater campus.
Layla Bohall, program team lead for the Culinary Arts program, said the program will have two faculty members. An associate degree and certificates of completion will be offered.
“I think it is going to be super beneficial to our region and community,” Bohall said. “It is an area in which there is a need to educate individuals, not just in the art of cooking but in leadership and business principles that we will work into the program.”
Registration continues for the fall semester at TSTC. For more information, go to tstc.edu.