Northwood Tech News

Northwood Tech’s new mobile welding lab has arrived at the Rice Lake campus. The 53-foot mobile welding lab has eight individual welding booths, where students can practice hands-on skills and employers can have employees trained to upskill their abilities.  The lab is part of the College’s expanding options for Industry 4.0 Advanced Manufacturing training. Since the lab is mobile, power will either be supplied by a generator or a shore power at the training site.

The mobile welding lab is slated to commence its first training session on April 17, traveling to the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. While there, eight individuals will be trained in the lab and receive their customized welding credentials. From there, the lab will travel to various parts of the Northwood Tech region to other organizations.

The project is part of the three-year RESTORE (Restoring Employment through Support, Training, Outreach, Recruitment, and Education) project funded by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and Department of Workforce Development as part of a $10 million Workforce Innovation Grant under the Federal American Rescue Plan Act. The RESTORE project presented a partnership between the College and Chippewa Valley Technical College with the purpose of assisting regions of Wisconsin to address and solve the critical workforce shortage in the manufacturing industry.

By bringing training to rural Wisconsin, the project will rebuild the workforce through training opportunities that will produce quality-trained individuals, support the growing manufacturing industry, and fill the current open positions. Overall, this responsiveness to workforce challenges in our area will help sustain employability for manufacturing in the future.

“The mobile welding lab is an excellent new addition to Northwood Tech’s mobile training options. Solutions like this will allow students who may not be able to travel to a campus be able to receive a short-term hands-on training option close to home, which is a great way to expand access to programming across the region, “ said Northwood Tech President John Will.

Employers can elect to have customized training for their employees or individuals can choose to enroll in courses. Depending on the customized training for each session and/or individual, various credentials can be attained including:

• Shielded Metal Arc Welding (7 credits)
• Gas Metal Arc Welding (7 credits)
• Flux Cored Arc Welding (6 credits)
• Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (8 credits)
• Welding/Maintenance and Fabrication (14 credits) Technical Diplomas
• Stainless Steel Certificate (6 credits).

For more information on sessions and customizable welding credentials through Northwood Tech, email CustomizedTraining@NorthwoodTech.edu.