Northwest Technology Center Awarded Lottery Grant

Northwest Technology Center with campuses in Alva and Fairview was recently awarded a Lottery Grant from the State of Oklahoma for a Mobile Welding Lab. The mobile lab will be used to train employees for local businesses and add additional hands-on training experience to high school and adult students attending the full-time Welding Technology program. Steve Kliewer, Business and Industry Services Director at NWTC Fairview, and J.P. Parker, Welding Instructor at NWTC, completed the grant application.

The mobile lab will use a modified gooseneck flatbed trailer and will include six engine driven multi-process welders along with all the related welding and fabrication specific equipment. Training topics include Stick, MIG, and TIG welding as well as oxy-acetylene cutting processes.

Oklahoma’s skilled workforce is shrinking, and area businesses have open positions that need qualified applicants. The new mobile training lab will allow Northwest Tech to take this training directly to our local communities and deliver the education and required certifications to fill these jobs.

Construction of the lab will begin this fall. “I am excited about the potential this new mobile lab will provide. It will allow us the flexibility to provide training onsite for our local business and to offer this career training onsite in our communities. The Mobile Welding training equipment allows us to provide training at the point of need.” stated Daren Slater, Superintendent of Northwest Technology Center.

For more information on the Mobile Welding Lab, please call Steve Kliewer at 580.227.3708 or via email at skliewer@nwtech.edu.