Minnesota fabricating community bands together to support welding program
Financial donations for South Central College welding lab aim to develop local manufacturing talent
Photos courtesy of South Central College
When Sarah Richards went to work for the family metal fabricating company, Jones Metal Inc., Mankato, Minn., in the latter part of the first decade of the 2000s, one of the first things she tackled was recruitment and employee retention. Early on she saw the difficulty in trying to entice young people into considering a career in manufacturing.
Today Richards and other nearby manufacturers who joined the cause see the fruition of their commitment to promoting manufacturing. With the help of state funding and additional financial support from the Jones family’s charitable foundation and those local metal fabricating companies, the North Mankato campus of South Central College now has a state-of-the-art welding lab and a waiting list of students to get into it.
The power of clean air in the shop
A webcast provides guidance on how a metal fabricating operation can protect its employees without breaking the bank
Photo courtesy of Hastings Air Energy Control
Pardon Kellie McElroy Hooper if she’s excited about her new welding lab at South Central College’s North Mankato campus. The new digs have created a waiting list to grab one of the 20 spots in the semester-long welding certificate program. That’s saying something considering the college had dropped its welding program in the late 2000s.
“I don’t think we would be able to attract students with this type of enthusiasm for the subject without this new environment,” said McElroy Hooper, dean of the college’s career and technical educational department. “Anytime you give people a nice, clean environment that’s also very professional, you are going to get better results in the end.”