San Diego CCE's Welding Program: Training Our Future
Beyond sun and surf, submarines and skilled trades are important aspects of life in San Diego, California. Of course, you can’t have the former without people who pursue the latter.
San Diego College of Continuing Education (SDCCE) is proud to offer a welding program as part of its Skilled and Technical Trades certificate programs. Students can gain certifications in shielded metal arc or gas tungsten arc welding over the course of 600 hours in 24 weeks.
The cost to each trainee: lower than the low tides on La Jolla Beach.
“The beautiful thing about San Diego College of Continuing Education is, unlike other community colleges and four-year institutions, we offer our programs 100 percent free to the students,” said Dr. Tina M. King, President of SDCCE, “and so the partnership is essential for the students as well as to the college and for the future to come.”
That partnership is between her institution and BlueForge Alliance, facilitated through its work with the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base. SDCCE is expanding its welding program on multiple fronts, including new welding booths, upgraded ventilation and electrical, and new faculty members.
"A lot of these different programs are trying to emphasize systems, and we want to get people exposure to the different equipment,” said Andrei Lucas, Dean of Automotive, Skilled and Technical Trades at SDCCE. “This funding allows us to obtain more equipment so that students can get more exposure to the different technologies out there.”
Prior to the expansion, SDCCE was turning away large numbers of people interested in pursuing welding. Now, the department will have capacity for approximately 320 students each semester, double what they once could accommodate. After passing their 24 weeks of training, graduates can pursue opportunities at more than 300 Submarine Industrial Base suppliers in the San Diego County area. Welders are in high and growing demand in this region, with tens of thousands of openings projected by the state in the coming years.
“The fact that there’s that out there and someone cares enough to go ahead and fund us that money is amazing,” said Ariana Espinoza, a welding student at SDCCE in early 2024. “With all that, we can upgrade all of our equipment, and that’s a benefit for everyone: the community, people going in the trades. I think that, in itself, is a huge deal, and it’s going to impact so many people.”
“The funding that we got from this grant, I can’t explain the excitement level, but I do know that they felt like they were being invested in personally,” added Brad Dorschel, Co-Program Chair for Skilled & Technical Trades at SDCCE as well as a welding instructor. “A lot of them have never had somebody really believe in them like this, and it’s powerful, and now they’re passing it down to the next generation to say this is viable, this is needed, and you can be extremely successful here, especially when you have the support of these partners.”
Naval Base Point Loma and its submarines sit on the southwest side of San Diego. From the city’s southeast side, a new generation of welders will emerge from SDCCE, find well-paying careers in their community, and contribute to the U.S. Navy’s next undersea platforms.
