3 minute read
Welding needs funds
Participation in SkillsUSA competition canceled
Lorrie Reyes / Roundup
When budget cuts due to a bad economy start to hit the athletic programs on campus, you know the budget is bad.
But what does that mean for other departments that aren’t as high profile as the Athletic department?
In the Welding program, it means that Pierce College will not be sending a team to the SkillsUSA competition because of lack of funding.
“There’s no way to get there anymore. We have no support whatsoever in getting to our state completion,” said Welding Instructor Gary Wheeler, who chooses the students for SkillsUSA.
Even before this year, money has been an issue for the department.
“Each year I take money out of my pocket to get people to go to Skills[USA] and it’s been such a hassle trying to get the money back,” said Wheeler.
Last year’s welding team won six gold medals in the regional competition.
“I’m a big advocate for SkillsUSA,” said Wheeler. “It gets these guys out there to see what the real world is like.”
Part-time welding instructor Eugene Korchmarev was a student in Pierce’s welding department and participated in the SkillsUSA when he was a student.
Now his focus has become welding and teaching others and helping them become certified welders.
“This job is great. I love being able to help some of the guys out,” said Korchmarev. “I love knowing that people want to do this for a living. There aren’t too many people that want to do this. It’s really hard work.”
Wheeler gets his welding students ready for both the real world and the completion by having them work with blueprints and Korchmarev lets students bring in small projects from home.
“Everyone uses welding. It’s one of the most used practices out there,” said Korchmarev. “A lot of these jobs are what runs this country. Most people think if you’re not a lawyer, doctor or engineer you are not doing anything and it’s not true.”
According to Wheeler, although the SkillsUSA competition helps students get ready for the real world, their main goal is to get students to become certified welders.
Pierce College’s welding program no longer certifies welders, but in each completed class a student receives a certificate of completion.
Craig Weiser, part-time welding student, has almost completed the six classes that the welding program has to offer.
“We need more classes. We need to turn it into a full-time program,” said Weiser. “This is an American Welding Society test shop.”
Even with full classes, a strong welding shop, gold medals won at past SkillsUSA competitions and an industry that is in demand, budgets still have to be cut.
“If we did have a full-time program it would do very well here.” said Wheeler.
Angela Tafoya contributed to this report.
