(WACO) – More than 600 Texas State Technical College in Waco students attended Thursday’s Industry Career Day to learn about careers in welding technology, aviation maintenance, instrumentation technology and other fields.
The event included companies from throughout Texas, and as far away as the U.S. Virgin Islands, convening to talk to students who could be future employees.
Washington County Tractor in Brenham sells a variety of hay equipment, tractors, trailers and parts for the agricultural and construction industries. The company is quickly expanding in Central Texas and has a need for diesel mechanics to work on the New Holland and Kubota brands they sell.
John Dowling, the company’s corporate parts and service director, wanted to attend the event because of the quality of TSTC graduates he has employed in the past. The company has more than 130 employees in Brenham, Bryan, Navasota, Sealy and Temple.
“We need more schools like TSTC,” Dowling said. “We need quality employees.”
Plastipak Holdings Inc. has facilities in Garland and Highlands and specializes in plastic bottle manufacturing. Kevin Tolly, the company’s human resources manager, said he was seeking technical degree majors who knew how to mechanically troubleshoot.
Tolly credited TSTC’s Career Services staff for having good business knowledge of what is needed in industry.
“We met a lot of folks that will be very good,” he said.
Dustin Uptmore is familiar with TSTC in Waco; he is a 2007 Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning Technology graduate and has been employed at Capstone Mechanical in Waco his whole career. The company has 150 employees.
Uptmore said the company was interested in finding potential plumbing apprentices, service technicians and HVAC commercial mechanics.
“It was good today,” Uptmore said. “I met a lot of welding and HVAC students. I’ve been to every Industry Career Day event the past three years.”
Some students were impressed employers took time to visit the technical college to learn about them.
Eligio Puente, 19, of Rosebud is a Computer Networking and Systems Administration major planning to graduate in the spring.
“I liked the way you learn what they have in jobs and you can take your resume to give to people,” he said. “It’s good interaction with them.”
Bryne Henry, 20, of Moody is majoring in Cyber Security and Computer Networking and Systems Administration and said he was encouraged by company representatives giving him information on how to learn about their work and available jobs. He is scheduled to graduate next summer.
Henry said he enjoyed visiting the Austin-based Loop1 Systems Inc. booth. The company specializes in Internet technology professional services and training and was recently named a Top 5,000 fastest-growing company, according to Inc. Magazine.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.
