Mission Statement

The Butte College Welding Technology Department serves our community by providing diverse experiential learning opportunities in a progressive curriculum, using advanced technology, industry cooperation, and alumni support to prepare students for productive futures.

Program Description

This program has four full-time, one full-time grant funded non-tenure position and two part time instructors.  The Welding Technology program operates daily classes from 7:30 am - 5pm and currently Saturday classes from 7am - 2:30pm.  The Welding Technology Department has made scheduling changes to increase student success.

Certificated prerequisite courses are offered four nights per week (Monday–Thursday) from 5 - 10pm and two days per week (Tuesday/Thursday) from 12 - 5pm during the Fall semesters. The Spring semester has four such courses offered four nights per week and the summer session offers two of these courses on a shortened schedule. The full time program is impacted, with 140 on a list for Fall 2016, 55 will be eccepted leaving 85 students on a waitlist.  There are 10 students on a list for Fall 2017. This list will continue to grow and change over the Spring 2016 semester. 

An eight week certificated capstone program is offered after completion of the Welding Technology program.  This Petro-chemical and natural gas pipeline welding capstone program is offered during the summer session.  Students who have completed the full time program will have the opportunity to obtain a high paying career with PG&E, subcontractors of PG&E, and other large petro-chemical companies.  This program operates daily Monday through Friday from 7am – 5pm.

All full-time instructors and part-time instructors are active in the Sacramento Valley Section of the American Welding Society.  The program works continually with local and state industry partners to maintain currency in equipment, market trends, required job skills, and workforce requirements.

It has been difficult to find a pool of qualified and available part-time individuals who can work during the hours of 7:30 am – 5:30 pm to help absorb the yearly overload on current faculty members (with the current PT staff group shrinking due to various reasons).  With the expansion, addition of prerequisite courses that have been added over the past few years, and the PG&E partnership it has become even more essential to hire full time staff. Through grants and the district, welding was fortunate to receive two positions for the 2016 school year.  These new full time hires will dramatically help reduce loads of the current full time faculty members.

Recruitment is an important part of our program's ability to provide a continuing flow of ready professionals to the workforce. One major recruitment event that the department does annually is Arc Exposure that had 252 participants (54 high school teachers and 198 high school students) in attendance for the 2016 Arc Exposure event. Another major recruitment event that the department does annually is the Chico State/Butte College FFA field day that had 71 contestants in attendance for the 2015 field day.  These events are sponsored by industry vendors and local industry businesses.  This Fall, staff attended a Boy Scouts of America Merit Bag event for welding in Sacramento where 150 Boy Scouts participated in the event, and we are also attending one at the end of February in Sacramento.  In addition to Arc Exposure and the FFA Field Day, we also regularly participate in may other professional events throughout the year.

The department also assists on several campus wide projects and plays a critical role in fabricating small and large scale projects on campus.  We closely work with other departments on campus to provide support and collaboration throughout the campus community.

Accountability for Previously Funded Items

Student Learning/Administrative Unit Outcomes

WLD 30:  A new updated WPS-PQR form was created from scratch, and reviewed by all the welding faculity making sure that this new form could be used universally for  multiple classes and assignments.  The new form will be implemented in the Spring 2015 semester.
WLD 34:  Faculty had discussion for improving student success on the particular assignment during department meetings that was held on 9-24-14.  Instructors noted that we could potentially use another simulator in the future, but for this next year make students start cycling through the assignment sooner to eliminate the back log on the equipment. Part of the testing procedure involves tensile testing and root and face bends of the weldment. The most important thing is to purchase two or three tensile testers to replace the old machine that is not working correctly, out dated, and out of calabration.  Only having one of these pieces of equipment creates a backlog of students waiting to use it.  This backlog is even worse when the machine is broken down and we must wait for it to be fixed.
Changes will be implemented next Spring (depending upon funding) when this class is offered again.  This year the welding department has had the SLO and PLO reporting map revised to match what the SLO Coordinator wanted to see.  We have also along the way discussed SLOs and PLOs at every department meeting.  The department feels that we are on track and our goal this year is to make sure that we can deliver on improving the assessments for the future.  The department knows that this is going to take a large amount of money but as staff we are committed to trying to make this happen.  We also want to make sure that we keep doing what is expected of us as far as reporting documents.
Data was collected through the observation of students completing the assessment, review of destructive testing results and quality of the students work.
See the attachment for the WLD 34 Weldment and Bend Specimen Rubric.
WLD 36:  As a department we would like to have the ability to fully test the welding procedure, but this is not possible due to the condition of our existing tensile tester.  If we had at least two functioning tensile testing machines it would allow students to fully test welding procedures under ASME.  In addition to being able to test under ASME, new tensile testing machines would also allow more students to train for welder qualification tests under API (American Petroleum Institute).  These testers could be used in multiple classes within the welding program.  If the assignment was put further ahead on the progress chart more students would be able to get to it due to less congestion on the welding simulator.  The purchase of more engine driven welders and the building of additional welding simulators would also increase the number of students who could complete the assessment at the same time.
Curriculum changes have been made throughout the welding classes that will hopefully better prepare students to complete this type of assessment earlier in the year, which will increase the number of students who can successfully complete the assessment.  At least one more welding simulator would also help.  As funds become available the welding department would like to purchase at least two new tensile testers, and possibly some more engine driven field welding equipment.
Data was collected through the observation of students completing the assessment, review of destructive testing results and quality of the students work.
See attachment WLD 36 Weldment and Bend Specimen Rubric.

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (OSLED Departments)

			College			Program
Indicator	Source	2013-2014 Performance	Standard	Five Year Goal	Fall 2014 Performance	Standard	Five Year Goal
Course Success
-          Overall	PDR	71.1%	70%	73%
-          Transfer/GE	PDR	71.5%		73%
-          CTE	PDR	75%		77%	85%	77%	86%
-          Basic Skills	PDR	51.7%		55%
-          Distance Ed (all)	PDR	62.5%		64%
Persistence (Focused).  Note:  The Persistence (Focused) that is included in the PDR is a different indicator than the three-primary term persistence indicator, from the state Student Success Scorecard, that is used to measure institutional persistence.  The Focused Persistence indicator measures the percentage of students that took a second course in a discipline within one year. There is no relationship between the college and program standards in this area.	PDR	72.6%    (Three-Term) Scorecard	67% (Three-Term) Scorecard	75% (Three-Term) Scorecard
Degrees	PDR	1,455		1,600	6	3	10
Certificates	PDR	366		475	CA: 37 CC: 176	CA: 30 CC: 50	CA: 40 CC: 180
Developmental Strand Completion
-          English	State	42%		45%
-          Math	State	30.7%		33%
-          ESL	State	25%		28%
Licensure Pass Rates
-          Registered Nursing	SC
-          Licensed Vocational Nursing	SC
-          Respiratory Therapy	SC	100%	80%	100%
-          Paramedic	SC
-          Cosmetology	SC
-          Welding	SC	92%	80%	95%
Job Placement Rates (Manufacturing and Industrial Technology)	PIV	89%	75%	90%

                                                 The welding department is in compliance with the college standards.  The data clearly shows that this is a great program that is performing splendidly in spite of its facilities constraints.  The future goals are to double the size of the program again but will still remain conected to the students so that student success still reamins high.  The demand for these high skilled individuals is still in need.  A modern facility will also increase student success and student productivity for years to come.  Over the past five years the welding department has been reporting steady numbers and we would like to continue to do so.  We feel that our courses that are being offered are helping students obtain jobs, have the skills required for the profession, and be successful in the welding industry.  In order to maintain at the high level that we have in the program the college has selected the department to receive another full time hire which should help reduce the workload of current staff and allow a little more time to improve upon industry required skills and also allow time for us to meet with industry.  By doing these things it helps keep the program and students engaged in our educaitonal outcomes. The program feels that we have done better tracking of students over the past few years and also shown them the importance of the degrees and certificates.  It is the staffs hopes and goals to keep these number on the higher side of the range.  We also feel that having industry support these degrees and certificates is a huge assest to us as instructional staff. We as faculty would like to see this number increase even higher but realize that their a lot of factors that play a role in this number.  Being a cohort type program interaction is extremely important to the students success and we as staff are trying to make sure that we are providing the open door policy as much as possible. The job placement rate for this program over the past few years has been extremely high, we as staff feel that this is do to the industry contacts and reputation that the Butte College Welding Technology Program has developed over the past several years.    

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (All Other Departments)

Not applicable

Strategic Direction

1.  Enhancing a Culture of Completion & Academic Achievement:
The welding department has been focusing on enhancing a culture of academic acheivement and completion.  Over the last three years we have had a job placement rate of 96% which is extremely high and we are pleased.  Staff feels that the cohort type of classes and course offerings is what helps student achieve their goals.
Scheduling of courses in the welding department is extremely critical.  The department needs to make sure that there are enough prerequisite courses being offered for students that are trying to complete them so that they can enroll into the program courses.  As a department we are looking at these projections to make sure that we are offering the correct sections at the right time.

Program Review

The Validation Team recommends that the Welding Program:
1. Program Expansion - The department has a plan to increase the number of students that can enter the welding program but this plan hinges heavily on a funding stream(s).
2. Use current space efficiently - the department has been working hard over the past two years to purchase equipment that utilizes less space and in some cases eliminates more that one peice of equipment while improving the equipment that students are trained on to better match the industry.
3. Student to faculty ratio - The department has been selected to hire two new full time faculty (one is on a grant funded position for two years and the other is a tenure track position) it will start addressing the need to reduce ped cap number but utimately increase the number of students that will be excepted into the welding program.
4. Facility expansion - The district has completed a feasability study about an expansion.  There are still funding stream(s) and location details that need to be ironed out. 
5. 2+2 articulation - Staff are very involved with this process and feel that this is a great way for students to earn credit prior to leaving high school and be eligible to enter the welding program upon graduation.  This also helps with the facility and class impaction on prerequisite courses to some degree.
6. Cohort courses that Welding 20 and 21 students can take - the department is still looking at completing this list.  It is being looked at to make sure that the courses that students are taking are ones that will also help them earn their degree along the way. 
7. Waitlist process - We have reviewed this process and currently found that this one is the best process for us.  The department secretary retired and this position is in the process of hiring a new individual, once that person is in place the plan is to review the current process again.
8. Diverse student population - The department has been looking into several different ways to increase a diverse student population.  We have been working with the AWS (American Welding Society) to help in this area, but it will take time to see if our efforts are paying off.
9. Technology in the classroom through Blackboard - As a department we have increased the use of blackboard in our course. Students and staff feel that it is a great tool.  Students receive instant feedback which helps them view results faster.  Staff also utilizes this tool to post lecture notes and materials that students can have access to again if needed.

Department Goals

The department goals are as follows:
1. New Facility
2. Increase the number of students that we can serve in the year
3. Maintain what we currently do - get supply funds institutionalized
4. Procure funds to replace aging equipment

Future Development Strategies

Requested Non-Financial Resources

Current Financial Resources

Augmentation Requests

Original Priority	Program, Unit, Area	Resource Type	Account Number	Object Code	One Time Augment	Ongoing Augment
Description	Supporting Rationale		Potential Alternative Funding Sources		Prioritization Criteria
1	Welding Technology	Operating Expenses	11.000.515.1.095650	51000/5430	$0.00	$105,000.00
Maintain existing program excellence by institutionalization of necessary funds.	One time money needing to changed to ongoing funding $80,000. Budget for the Power Pathway Capstone Program $25,000. Exponential growth of all welding classes and the increased laboratory time for the beginning and intermediate classes that are currently offered and the rising cost of welding supplies necessitate an increase in supply money. We have received adjustments in the supply budget for the past seven year's to adequately serve the program but these dollars need to be institutionalized because current funding sources may not continue to be viable. This relief over and above our previous regular budget ranged from $12,000 to $14,000 per year prior to the expansion. With the expansion, additional prerequisite courses added, changes to curriculum and meeting required industry standards; it is $40,000 that is needed (this additional funding was funded through grants for this years operational budget cycle). With all the information that we have supplied the department is asking for funding to be institutionalized in the amount of $105,000. This dollar amount does not include what the department would need without the current base material donations that instructors are obtaining from industry partners. Without these donations the dollar amount would be $190,000.				Maintaining core programs and services Directly supporting meeting department standards/goals for student achievement and/or supporting the college in meeting its student achievement standards and/or goals Collaborating effectively with K-12 to set appropriate student expectations, align curriculum, and prepare students for college success Evaluating standards and goals for course success, retention, degree achievement, certificate completion, transfer, and credentialing annually Improving access, success, and completion of targeted student populations through the implementation of the Student Equity Plan
2	Welding Technology	Equipment	11.000.515.1.095650	56610	$25,800.00	$0.00
Upgrade and improve existing equipment used for welding certifications. - Replacement of failing Welding Power Sources ($25,800)	Replacement of failing Welding Power Sources ($25,800) – The purchase of several multi-process welding power sources will allow students to more efficiently complete certification test per welding codes. Students will utilize the welding machines throughout the duration of the program for lab projects, test coupons, welding bend specimens per welding codes, and for welding certification tests. Students will also utilize this equipment throughout the welding program to complete required course and program assessments prior to becoming a certified welder. These machines provide the latest technology in welding machines that uses to maximize weld production, quality, and performance.		Career and Technical Education - Perkins		Maintaining core programs and services Directly supporting meeting department standards/goals for student achievement and/or supporting the college in meeting its student achievement standards and/or goals Collaborating effectively with K-12 to set appropriate student expectations, align curriculum, and prepare students for college success Placing students appropriately, advising them effectively, and ensuring that they have educational plans Evaluating standards and goals for course success, retention, degree achievement, certificate completion, transfer, and credentialing annually
3	Welding Technology	Personnel	11.000.515.1.095650	5200	$16,000.00	$0.00
The purpose of this professional development is to have 5 instructors attend FABTECH which is a Forming, Fabricating, Welding and Finishing Event.	FABTECH provides a convenient venue where you can meet with world-class suppliers, see the latest industry products and developments, and find the tools to improve productivity, increase profits and discover new solutions to all of your metal forming, fabricating, welding, and finishing needs. The annual event will offer more than 1,300 exhibitors and 28,000 attendees full access to over 550,000 net square feet of floor space. Students will gain the knowledge from the instructional staff throughout the rest of the school year. Due to the cost of this event and only having two locations within the United States that it is held, Las Vegas being the closest, it has been 6 years since we as a department have attended this world class event.		Career and Technical Education - Perkins		Directly supporting meeting department standards/goals for student achievement and/or supporting the college in meeting its student achievement standards and/or goals Reaching the Sustainable Continuous Quality Improvement level on the implementation of Student Learning Outcomes
4	Welding Technology	Facilities	11.000.515.1.095650	56000	$23,000,000.00	$0.00
Build a new Welding Manufacturing Facility that allows the room for expansion.	The Welding Manufacturing building has reached the end of its useful life. It is in need of significant repairs that would close the program and displace students for an entire program/school year. Additionally, the Welding program is in high demand and could use additional space to expand the program. There may be an opportunity to cure the facilities issues in the area with a construction and/or remodel program. Funding will be used for a new facility and new equipment $23,000,000				Maintaining core programs and services Resolving health, life, and safety issues Supports Previous Program Review Recommendations Directly supporting meeting department standards/goals for student achievement and/or supporting the college in meeting its student achievement standards and/or goals Collaborating effectively with K-12 to set appropriate student expectations, align curriculum, and prepare students for college success Evaluating standards and goals for course success, retention, degree achievement, certificate completion, transfer, and credentialing annually
5	Welding Technology	Equipment	11.000.515.1.095650	51490	$220,000.00	$0.00
Purchasing a robotic welder to train students	The welding department is looking to purchase a robotic welding machine to train students how to set up, operate and program. These types of machines are what students who enter the workforce are going to encounter on some level and or degree. This technology is only becoming more and more prevalent in the industry. If our students have the skills needed to set up, operate, and program, that will make them more valuable as an employee.		Career and Technical Education - Perkins		Collaborating effectively with K-12 to set appropriate student expectations, align curriculum, and prepare students for college success Directly supporting meeting department standards/goals for student achievement and/or supporting the college in meeting its student achievement standards and/or goals Maintaining core programs and services
6	Welding Technology	Facilities	11.000.515.1.095650	56000	$465,000.00	$0.00
Improve health and welfare of students and staff working within the existing facility	To improve the health and safety of students and instructors the program needs additional dollars for installation of grinding booths on the west and east ends of the welding building. These will also act as sound/noise barriers to mitigate the grinding noise affecting the LRC, EH, and MA buildings and class areas. The ventilation system needs to be reworked in the East end of the building in MIG Alley. Also working on building a fence with gates to safely secure equipment and block any potential hazards to pedestrians in the area. If a new building is not built then a modular building located in the welding area would give prospective students an area to meet with instructors while they are discussing the program prior to the facility tour. Current office and facility environment/space is not conducive to these specific needs. • Grinding Booths (Dust and Noise reduction) $300,000 • Modular Office located next to the welding building $ 85,000 •Ventilation system in the East end of the building in MIG Alley $ 80,000		Career and Technical Education - Perkins		Resolving health, life, and safety issues Maintaining core programs and services Directly supporting meeting department standards/goals for student achievement and/or supporting the college in meeting its student achievement standards and/or goals
7	Welding Technology	Operating Expenses	11.000.515.1.095650	51000/5430	$185,000.00	$150,000.00
Develop a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, fabrication program to fit the needs of local and state manufacturing companies.	Our Welding Program Advisory Committee has directed us to improve student opportunities in manufacturing/fabrication skills and certification testing procedures. We are in the process of evaluating our curriculum to determine the best fit for these enhancements, also looking for outdated information and techniques which could be removed from curriculum. Instruction in the manufacturing/fabrication techniques will require some additional equipment, facilities, instructors, and courses. We have also begun exploration in establishing a Manufacturing/Fabrication Program. This would generate FTES for the college, meet industry needs, and provide students with another educational/career pathway with abundant prospects and the potential for high skill, high wage employment. This program would be one of a kind at the community college level and would further set Butte College apart from other California Community Colleges. The drafting, computer science and art programs would play a huge roll in the success of this program. • Curriculum development, materials and supplies, equipment, facility, instructional support. $335,000		Career and Technical Education - Perkins		Maintaining core programs and services Directly supporting meeting department standards/goals for student achievement and/or supporting the college in meeting its student achievement standards and/or goals Collaborating effectively with K-12 to set appropriate student expectations, align curriculum, and prepare students for college success