New Metal Fabrication Degree Doubles Down on Student Skills

Penn College is promoting versatile manufacturing skills with a new associate degree in metal fabrication technology. The unique, two-year program provides students with foundational skills in machining and welding, which prepares them for a variety of rewarding manufacturing careers. “One reoccuring theme that I heard from students when I was in welding was they wanted to learn how to machine. And then when I taught classes in machining, I heard them saying they wanted to learn how to weld,” says Howard W. Troup, maintenance mechanic/millwright specialist in the School of Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies. “I would ask employers that were looking for either a welder or a machining person, ‘What if you had a person that had both those skill sets?’ And their eyes would just light up and they would say, ‘That would be fantastic!'”