Community Foundation grant lights up CCH welding program

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on May 16, 2023.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Welding and fabrication instructor, Lance Rosen shows part of a dragon, one of his students' work in progress, Monday at Catholic Central High School west campus.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The welding and fabrication department at Catholic Central High School West campus has received a grant from the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta.

Earlier this month, it was announced that CCH would receive a $5,500 grant from the Foundation to purchase welding and fabrication equipment for the trades program. On Monday Caitlin Gajdostik, grants coordinator with Foundation, delivered the money and a plaque to welding and fabrication instructor, Lance Rosen.

Rosen said the grant will benefit the students through the purchase of another welder, which will expand the program’s capacity, allowing students to build skills they can use in the real world.

“With the new welder we’ll be able to take on a few more students, but it’s going to expand the program offering; what each kid comes in and experiences and skills that they can learn while they’re in the classroom,” said Rosen.

He said one machine they will buy with the funding is a multi-process machine that can do MIG, Stick and TIG welding.

“We only have one TIG welder right now, so it’ll allow more students hands-on in that capacity, so we’re not rotating 15 or 24 students through one machine, while we can have two going or because they just run into a bottleneck when they’re waiting to Weld.”

Rosen said the number of students varies from quarter to quarter sometimes. Some quarters they have up to 27 students, while this quarter they only have 16.

“It’s grown from one section at the beginning when we first started the program, to now we’ve had five sections this year, so that’s definitely popular. Kids are interested in figuring out if they want to go into the trades or not, trying it out,” said Rosen.

He said there have been quite a few students who have taken the program and realize that’s what they want to do, and they are pursuing it as their career of choice in post-secondary.

Since the program has been offered at the school for the last five years, Rosen said some of the students who took advantage of it are now in their second and third year of apprenticeship.

“It’s really cool to see that, because one of them, he didn’t even want to be a Welder; he didn’t even want to take the class, and now he’s finishing his welding and he just loves it. It’s like taking it here actually sparked his interest, pun intended,” said Rosen.

He said he runs the class by mirroring the Lethbridge College Welding program, as the students practice the welds at the post-secondary standard level.

“I also incorporate a project that they can do whatever they want, and I find that it really hooks them and that really sparks their interest and gets them excited about it.”

He said one student is making a dragon, another one is making a table, and other students are doing art pieces.

“That’s what they’re into, and then they can use the skills they learn to create and that’s when the fire gets lit. And then the ones that go into post-secondary, they learn the skills and they are able to mix both the academic and the art skills,” said Rosen.

He said the grant could potentially change the trajectory of many students’ careers, by allowing them to be exposed to trades skills at a high school level.

“It is also helping them build skills for not just for a career, but for a hobby, so the impact goes a long way. It’s providing them opportunities to be successful and to see their improvement, even from their first class at the beginning of the very first time in class, to the end of that first class, they can hold them side by side and look at how much you’ve improved, so that builds their confidence, so it’s more than just welding,” said Rosen.

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