The World of Welding Education

This article was originally published in the April 2025 issue of the AWS Welding Journal. Republished with permission.  Visit https://www.aws.org/publications/WeldingJournal.

When I entered welding education, I had only taught a semester of gas metal arc welding classes part-time. A full-time faculty position opened up at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis, Ind., and I applied with some hesitation. Coming directly from the field and unfamiliar with a college setting, I had little idea of the journey I was about to embark on.

As much as I would love to brag about my students, the fantastic equipment, and the program’s growth, I think it is important to share a side of welding education that doesn’t often get enough attention: the amazing things happening behind the scenes in most programs and the different tools we use to conduct these feats. My experience comes from a large statewide community college with 190,744 total students, 32,115 of whom are on our campus alone (unfortunately, not all are welding students). Currently, we have 109 students in the welding program and are running 19 sections this semester.

In most schools, the first challenge for new instructors is navigating the learning management system (LMS), where students can locate the syllabus, course outline, and other tools. Usually, an LMS is aligned with a curriculum provider and contains homework, tests, quizzes, required reading, and safety-related materials. At first, I was a bit skeptical of the LMS, but students coming to class already familiar with welding terms and understanding safety hazards has huge benefits. And it saves me from giving them a long lecture about why I’m missing part of a finger.

We also have a curriculum committee consisting of 17 welding professionals from different campuses across Indiana. We meet at least twice a year to make changes to our curriculum or our course outline. While each campus can add to the curriculum to better align with local industry, all campuses must follow the statewide curriculum.

Being a part of a large organization has its benefits and challenges, but I have come to rely on this group to build better coursework for students and to help build a stronger program for our state. Normally, before our committee meets, we hold an advisory board meeting made up of industry professionals who are invested in our program and contribute to the discussions, bringing knowledge and foresight from their experience in the skilled trades. This helps us maintain rigor that aligns with industry standards and guides us when asking for grants to improve labs and welding equipment. I have found that if you give industry employers a voice and show them they matter, they will fight to help improve things for prospective employees.

This is just scratching the surface of things we do daily that have little to do with student-facing outcomes but lead to better student engagement and a healthier learning environment. When I started this journey, my only goal was being in the classroom. But now, I am the program chair. We have two full-time faculty members and two adjuncts. We work as a team to get things done in a timely and efficient manner. Our students are our priority, no matter what. As long as the team keeps this focus, we can’t fail.

Now, let’s talk about those fancy welding labs a little bit. We like to think of our lab as an independent shop, but what we ultimately produce is scrap. It’s hard to conduct a true business model when the end product cannot be sold. Instead, we focus on engagement and how we can capture that through a structured lesson plan to meet a learning objective that will align with a specific outcome.

All of this must be done while trying to increase enrollment and staying within a structured budget. Most know that welding is not cheap, and welding education, done right, can’t focus solely on finances. However, the instructor usually takes on the challenge of trying to keep expenses within a specific boundary. We reach out to our advisory board for help with materials for certain things, and our community is a great resource.

At the end of the day, I am grateful that I have had wonderful mentors to help develop my skills. Though I earned my position, I didn’t get here alone. I was supported — and sometimes dragged along — through learning everything from email etiquette (don’t “reply all” on a campus-wide email) to building course schedules and utilizing purchasing software. I continue to stay grateful for those lessons. Now, I have the opportunity to give others a chance to teach and test the waters in the world of welding education.