BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — The city council approved an agreement that allows Bakersfield College students in their welding program to help create and install custom iron fencing and enclosures at city-owned facilities.
“We’re doing it all here. We paint, prep, I mean our cement work, obviously the main part about this is welding, fabricating the gates, but we learn a lot of other things that we can actually do at home or on our own,” said Bakersfield College student Kevin Torres.
Kevin Torres, a student at Bakersfield College has been in the work experience program for two years now, and he says he has learned more than he ever could with the hands-on training and doing projects for the city of Bakersfield.
“It gave me a lot of experience and when I went to go look for my first welding job, they hired me on quick and they wanted to keep me right away because it showed that I had experience,” said Torres.
The experience that Torres has received in the program was from working on welding projects around the city. He has worked on projects that helped the fire department, the police department, and several parks, and one of his professors says this is the best way for the students to learn.
“There's nothing like hands on. I mean you can talk about something all day long and read about it all day long, but it just won’t be the same when you get out there to work on it,” said Bakersfield College Welding Instructor Melvin Mackey.
“We’re putting up gates to kind of minimize the traffic you know of just anybody coming in and just doing whatever they’d like to do at the park, so that helps the park rangers. It kind of lightens their job somewhat to a degree because they can come around every night at 10 o'clock and lock the gates that we are installing to help minimize the traffic,” said Mackey.
And while Torres agrees this benefits the city, he says the experience he has gained through the project allows him to pass on that knowledge to other students. Something that has inspired him to one day teach to the next generation of welders.
“I have students talk to me every day you know. Oh when can i get into the program, or how can I get into the program, they are non stop asking me. I feel like I'm almost an instructor because I'm helping them out, and it makes me feel good. I love it,” said Torres.
Torres says he is happy that he could learn the necessary skills to be successful in his career through the program, but he is also happy to help the city of Bakersfield.
