EUGENE, Ore. — There’s nothing like getting a little grease under your fingernails. That—and the promise of a good-paying job—brought hundreds of high school students, staff, and families to Lane Community College main campus on May 11 and 12 for the annual Diesel Days and Fabrication and Welding Expo.
These concurrent events allow attendees to explore the career fields of welding-fabrication and diesel technology with their hands. In Lane County, diesel mechanics make $24.21 an hour and $50,353 a year. For welders, it’s $18.55 to $24.84 an hour and $38,587 to $51,680 a year.
Some attendees fabricated tool trays and piggy banks. Others practiced their finesse at using a boom and bucket on an excavator to lift and move a heavy jumble of machine tracks.
High school students from as far away as Florence attended the fair. Everyone had an opportunity to meet with instructors, current students, local vendors and admissions and advising staff. Culinary students and staff fed the hungry crowd with mouth-watering burgers from Lane’s newly re-branded food truck.
One mom wrote in to say, “All three (of her) boys had amazing time. Tyler signed onto the website Sunday to register for his first class.”
For more information about diesel, welding and fabrication programs at Lane, call (541) 463-5380 or visit Advanced Technology.
Lane Community College educates over 25,000 students annually at six locations across Lane County and online. Students and alumni from all 50 states and 79 countries create more than an $850 million dollar impact on the local economy, helping to support more than 13,000 local jobs. Lane provides affordable, quality, professional technical and college transfer programs; business development and employee training; academic, language and life skills development; and lifelong personal development and enrichment courses.