(RED OAK, Texas) – The Welding program at Texas State Technical College’s North Texas campus will begin offering an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree in the fall semester.
“Currently the best option for North Texas students to complete their AAS is to travel to Waco,” said Joseph Francia, a program team lead at TSTC. “There are several students interested. By offering it in North Texas, we certainly anticipate the interest in the AAS to increase.”
Joaquin Rodriguez, a Welding instructor at TSTC’s North Texas campus, said the most rewarding part of his job is seeing students build strong careers and the associate degree will allow them more time to master their craft.
“I always remind my students that welding can be just the beginning,” he said. “From welding, they can move into fabrication, quality control, NDT (non-destructive testing) inspection, CWI (certified welding inspector), welding engineering or even owning and operating their own business.”
Travis Hill, a Welding instructor for TSTC’s Waco campus, said the new degree program will allow North Texas students to study non-destructive testing and quality control, better preparing them for supervisory roles in the industry. He has personally seen graduates with an AAS go on to work for larger welding shops that build structures like football stadiums.
“The biggest thing to me is it makes them more marketable in the job pool,” Hill said.
Elizabeth Hernandez, of Dallas, is a first semester Welding student at TSTC’s North Texas campus who is interested in pursuing an associate degree. She was pleased to hear the option is coming to Red Oak.
“Having an associate degree is important to me because that means I can get more job offers and more opportunities in other places,” Hernandez said. “I feel like all my other classmates would also be interested in it since they really love it.”
Registration for the summer and fall semesters at TSTC starts Monday, March 30. For more information about TSTC, visit tstc.edu.