Fremont-In the welding laboratory at Tela State Community College, Veronica Miller had nine students in class on Wednesday morning.

"When I first started, we often had complete courses," said Miller, an assistant professor who has worked at Terra State for eight years.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of welding students in Terra State began to rebound.

Every student in her class is a junior welder, and once they complete the Terra State course, they can immediately find a welding job.

Miller acknowledged that due to the continuous surge in local and national demand for welders, some students found jobs before completing their welding certificates.

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The American Welding Association warned that by 2024, the national welder shortage could reach a shortage of 400,000 workers.

This means that for Terra State students like Julius Robinson and Trenton Mominee, they have a lot of potential job opportunities, and they are in Miller's welding class on Wednesday morning.

However, the college has the responsibility to increase enrollment and cooperate with companies in Sandusky, Ottawa and surrounding counties to provide new employees and flexible training opportunities for companies in urgent need of welders.

Nate Kohlenberg is the Assistant Dean of the College's Technology and Skills Trade Department. His mission is to coordinate open enrollment training programs and customized training for Terra State's manufacturing and industrial partners.

Kohlenberg has been in Terra State since July.

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Terra State and Standard Technologies have reached an agreement to help the company and Terra State jointly conduct welding training for several employees with the help of a national technology credit grant. These employees include employees with welding experience and others without welding experience. Staff-train.

"They really have been trying to find welders for a long time," Kronberg said.

Once upon a time, Standard Technologies needed to add 20 welders to the company's Fremont plant.

Kohlenberg said this number may now be a little lower.

Terra State also discussed how to find and/or train more welders with other companies including LEWCO Inc. and Northern Manufacturing.

Kronberg said the two companies are mainly looking for new employees.

Miller said the number of welding students at Terra State University has been steadily increasing until the pandemic hit in March 2020.

As the college switched to distance courses for a few months, the momentum of heavy laboratories such as welding weakened.

Miller said that in the fall semester of 2019, 151 students from the college participated in 13 welding courses.

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Miller said there are currently 120 welding students in these 13 classes.

"It's not bad. We are climbing back," she said.

Robinson is a Sandusky resident and Terra State University baseball player. He said that he did some welding experiments at Sandusky High School, but didn't have many courses before entering the community college.

In the first few weeks of this semester in Miller's class, Robinson learned to solder and use different materials.

Based on his personal research, Robinson said that he sees a high demand for welders, with some underwater welding jobs earning as much as $100 per hour.

On Wednesday, sparks flashed behind the black welding partition of Trenton Mominee, and Terra State welding students worked in the college’s laboratory.

Mominee is a resident of Clyde and he definitely wants to be a welder, but he is not sure if he will stay in the area or travel after completing the one-year welding certificate course in Terra State.

He said he liked the environment of the welding workshop and the sense of freedom during welding.

"I like these trading opportunities and what they can provide in the long run," Mominee said.

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Kohlenberg described Terra State as “resources strained” in terms of welding and available space.

He said that the college is considering expanding laboratory resources.

Bill Taylor, vice president of academic affairs at Tela State University, told News-Messenger in November 2020 that some academic courses, such as electrical, welding, and PLC, are experiencing growth to the point that some of the college’s laboratories have bottlenecks.

To accommodate this growth and the needs of regional employers, Taylor said the college is considering expanding the Hayes Technology Trade Center or using other campus buildings.

Principal Ron Schumacher stated that Terra State has discussed with the Vanguard Technical Center about using the welding space of the technical school for training during non-working hours.