Metalwork students tasked with unusual project

  • 2019-01-15
Welding students at San Diego Continuing Education (SDCE) are working on designing and building a float for the Martin Luther King Day parade.

Bob Pyle, welding instructor, explains some of the realities of the industry. He notes that robots have been used as welders for years, but that does not mean humans are no longer needed. There will always be places where robots cannot go, and where human talent is necessary. However, the students will need to understand they will be working alongside automated machines.

He also expects that many of his students will go on to work for companies like General Dynamics NASSCO, a local shipbuilder that currently has an order for six new Navy vessels, and is expanding its workforce by up to 1,000 jobs.

Others in the program enjoy welding because it inspires them. Speaking to NBC San Diego, Andrea Cook said she hopes to go into industrial lighting, and run her own company. She was a technical theater major, and enjoyed designing and building stage lighting.

For the current project, students took two months to build a statue of Dr. King. The statue is stainless steel and weighs 700lb, and is made of 68 plates of steel stacked together, with the shape of Dr. King cut with a plasma cutter controlled by computer. Events like this give instructors at programs like SDCE a chance to reach potential students by distributing Promotional Products.

The parade is next Monday, January 21.


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