FREMONT, Ohio — A local employer needed more than 100 new employees to receive training before they could start on the job and Terra State Community College was there to answer the call.
The college officially opened its expanded welding lab to the public on Friday. Late last year, Bellevue-based manufacturer Autokiniton reached out to Terra State and said they had 125 new employees who needed welding training.
Terra State only had so much room in the existing welding lab, so it doubled capacity with this new facility.
"We're not done. The goal here is to continue the expansion in the welding program to make sure that we can continue to increase capacity, as that's one of the biggest needs in our district right now," Terra State President Ron Schumacher said.
The $300,000 project will allow for more professionals to receive training and more students to receive their industry recognized certificate.
"We're becoming more deliberate with that effort because we know that will get the students back out into the workforce to quickly respond to the needs of our business partners," Schumacher said.
Other local employers said welding positions are currently in high demand in the area.
But to fill those jobs, they must rely on partnerships like this one with Terra State to offer training and then a seamless transition into a career as efficient as possible for potential employees.
"Fremont is a great area, Fremont has a lot of jobs," said Max Valentine, CEO at Standard Technologies. "We're an employer here, and we obviously want to fill those positions too. But it can be rewarding throughout their career, there's a lot of opportunity here."
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