TSTC’s Workforce Training office offers new mobile welding training lab

(WACO, Texas) – Texas State Technical College’s Workforce Training office wants to bring welding to you.

The office recently finished creating a mobile welding training lab inside a 42-foot enclosed gooseneck trailer. The training lab features four welding bays, one being wheelchair accessible, along with multipurpose welding machines, a fume extraction system and a hydraulic wheelchair ramp.

“I think it’s a great opportunity,” said Courtney Cox, a TSTC Workforce Training project manager. “It adds a new tool in our toolbox.”

Workforce Training staff expect the mobile lab to be taken to high schools, trade shows and companies making requests for on-site certifications. The welding certifications that can be done in the mobile lab range from 1F, a flat weld done using a fillet joint, to 6G, which is an all-position pipe welding plus all-position structural welding.

“Being a certified welder opens doors for you,” said Jon Autenrieth, a TSTC Workforce Training instructor.

Autenrieth said staff are working to get the mobile trailer certified by the American Welding Society to be a mobile test facility. He said staff also want to get workforce training certification from the Texas Veterans Commission.

Jay Hernandez, executive director of TSTC’s Workforce Training office, said the mobile lab idea came about in discussions with staff from the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service regarding the availability of welding training opportunities.

For more information about Workforce Training at Texas State Technical College, call 254-867-4844 or go to tstc.edu/workforce.