Women in Welding
Here at Southwest Tech, the focus is on helping students find a career they enjoy. Sometimes that takes a person into a nontraditional area of study. Nontraditional Occupations (NTO) are careers that currently employ 25 percent or less of a traditional gender. This semester, the evening welding class has three female students; SaDonna, Dee and Yaeger.
SaDonna has been welding for a couple of years and returned to get her certification. Dee has been welding in the U.S. Army for more than 10 years and hopes to someday have her own mobile welding business to help farmers in the area. Yaeger came into the welding program with no experience, but has found a love for sculpting through the hands-on experience at Southwest Tech.
While these three women all have different backgrounds and skill level when it comes to welding, they all have one thing in common – they enjoy this field and can’t wait to move into a rewarding career they love.
The welding program at Southwest Tech trains students in manual, semiautomatic, and robotic welding processes used in a variety of fabrication and construction industries. Welders are employed in a wide variety of manufacturing and construction jobs and may hold titles such as aircraft structure assemblers, welding technician, fabricator or bridge construction worker
A highlight of earning a technical diploma in the welding program at Southwest Tech is that students can tailor the program to fit into his or her schedule! Southwest Tech offers an evening welding class from 5 p.m. -10 p.m., Monday-Thursday, or students can attend classes during the day. For more information about the welding programs, visit www.swtc.edu/welding.