Page 8 - World of Welding Winter 2019

The Power of Education

By: Melinda Jeffery
Hobart Institute of Welding Technology is a nonproft welding
college in the little town of Troy, OH. Guided by the motto
Committed to training the worlds best welders the curriculum
provides welding training that is focused on teaching the
fundamentals of welding and then building on that as the
program progresses. The programs, a 38 week Combination
Structural & Pipe Welding program or the 23 week Structural
Welding program, help prepare the students for jobs in various
segments of the welding industry. Students come from all over
the United States to learn to weld in our top notch facility. Some
come to us with no welding background at all, and some with
welding experience from a career center, welding on the farm,
in the garage, etc., but they all start at the same point and move
forward from there.
HIWT has an employment rate for our graduates of over 90% and
has more jobs on the job board than the number of students we
can graduate. We could fll the school to capacity several times
over and still not have enough graduates to fll all the jobs on our
job board. And thats just the jobs we know about; the companies that contact us looking for help.
I recently completed my BS in Business Administration and one of my last assignments was to tell what my plan was for employment upon
graduation. That was easy I plan to stay right here at HIWT until I retire. I have a job I am passionate about, and I love coming to work
and seeing the success our graduates have why would I want go anywhere else? Which made me think about our students.
Our students come from all walks of life. Some from rural areas and some from the city. One thing that is constant, however, is that they
are all passionate about welding. We see it when they visit the school and gaze at the sheer size of our facility and the welding booths.
We see it in their smiles when they pass a certifcation test, we see it all over Facebook where they post their latest weldments, we read it
in their course evaluations and we hear it when they graduate and start their new jobs. Our students leave us and embark on their welding
careers with great expectations knowing they have a top-notch education and the continued support of the HIWT family. They take their
passion for welding out into the world and they build America. They have the power of a great welding education behind them and the
world in front of them. They know they have been taught a skill that will provide a good quality of life and fnancial independence. The
world is their oyster, and they have power to go take it.

Visit HIWT At:

2018 WINTER ISSUE - 8 - www.welding.org