Canada’s Best Welder

Prince Edward Island gets the honour of calling Canada’s best welder one of its own. Nick Linkletter, graduate of a two-year college welding program, triumphed at the annual competition. He received an ESAB welding machine valued at $2,400 as well as a welding shield to go with it. Linkletter is now demonstrating his talents as a Red Seal welder at Diversified Metal Engineering.

Melting Steel and Barriers

We move on to Timmins for our next story which challenges the belief that welding is no job for a woman. One of three women chosen for Metalworking Production and Purchasing Magazine’s Top 20 Under 40, Meaghan Portelance is representative of a trend in the profession. More and more women are considering skilled trades as a career and that includes welding.

Now in her third year at the Bucket Shop in Timmins, Portelance works alongside three other women. That is considerably more than when Portelance took her college training and was the only female in the course. She finds welding to be a highly satisfying profession and receives nothing but respect and courtesy from her male coworkers.

Diversity in Welding

In addition to an increasing number of women taking up the profession, welding is serving as a viable career for a growing number of Aboriginal people as well. Thanks to a new program called Virtual Reality and Co-operative Trades: The Next Generation, Red Deer College’s Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing is welcoming students from the Montana First Nation.

The students complete six weeks of training and then hone their skills with a 20-week work placement. What’s unique is that these young men and women learn their craft in a program designed around their heritage. The training starts in the students’ home communities and incorporates cultural traditions imparted by tribe elders.

This provides the best of both worlds, allowing the students to gain a valuable trade, while also not sacrificing time spent on learning more about their heritage. Funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Flexibility and Innovation in Apprenticeship Technical Training program, Virtual Reality and Co-operative Trades: The Next Generation has already served 100 students since starting on February 2nd 2017, and two hundred more have applied as of this writing.

Are you interested in learning the essential skills you need to be a welder/metal fabricator? Eastern’s program runs for 32 weeks at the Saint John campus. It also includes a 160-hour work placement and graduates are eligible to complete the Apprentice Level I Exam. This makes them eligible for positions in metal shops, assembly plants, manufacturing, refineries, and the industrial sector.

Want to learn more? Contact us today and discover how Eastern College can help you attain a rewarding new career.