Welding student finds success

Welding student finds success

By Community Impact Newspaper Staff Friday, 13 June 2008

Joan Collins has finally bought a house. “I went from being totally broke to having money in my bank account,” she said.

Collins owes her success to the Temple College at Taylor’s school of welding. She graduated with the program’s first class in March and began working for Becon Construction as a welder in training.

For Collins, welding had been a life-long dream.

“I wanted to be a welder my whole life, and I finally got the opportunity to weld at [age] 56,” she said. “It can be hot, dusty and dirty at times, but the pay is great. I cannot express how happy I am to have completed the Temple College welding program. I have so much to learn with the boilermaker crew I am on, but my foreman is knowledgeable and leads us in a safe, orderly fashion.”

Collins wakes at 4 a.m. and commutes six days a week from Copperas Cove to the job site in Rockdale to work 10-hour days.

Collins graduated with a bachelor’s in business administration from Colorado Technical University last June before going to welding school.

“If anybody can do adult learning, then you would be crazy not to,” she said. “You have to go to school every day; you can’t skip. You only have 16 weeks to learn a lot. There are steps in welding — you can’t jump right into it.”

The program taught participants welding techniques and placed them in the workforce as welders in training.

“I’m tired at the end of the day, but I love it. It has changed my whole life in a good way,” she said.