- Forklift used to move heavy items around shops and labs.
- Downdraft plasma cutting table – allows to cut with plasma and pulls smoke down, keeping air quality clean.
- Bandsaw and ironworker (right), two of the main machines used to prepare the coupons.
- Welding technician Jared Tymburski (Civil Engineering Technology 2014; Welding Apprenticeship 2014) has worked at the college five years.
- Miller Pipeworx 400 – a multiprocess welding machine.
- A transmission cutaway to show students the internal mechanisms.
- Work area filled with fasteners and mounting equipment.
- Updating motors on stands, including modifications and repairs.
- Foldable engine hoist (left) and a hand-operated arbor press.
- Mechanical technician Mark Marchi moved to Lethbridge from Sparwood, B.C., and has worked at the college six years.
Jared Tymburski and Mark Marchi’s “office” is a bit hard to find, but well worth the search. The two spend their days working in a vast, light-filled shop tucked behind the welding booths in the new Trades, Technologies and Innovation Facility, located on the coulee’s edge on the southwest side of campus.
There, they create the materials that students in Welding, Automotives, Heavy Equipment and other trades use to put the concepts and theories they learn in the classroom into action. Their jobs are as essential to student learning as the jobs of people who write textbooks, teach lessons and lead labs.
The duo work closely with instructors to understand what support is needed – from the “coupons” (metal that has been cut and prepared in different shapes and sizes for different welding applications) to the stands to hold engines so students can learn how to diagnose and fix problems in complicated machines.
“This is the best shop I’ve ever worked in,” says Tymburski with a smile. Some of the equipment is as new as the building – which opened in 2017 as the largest trades training space south of Calgary. Other equipment goes back decades but still works well and lets them – and the students – get the job done.
To learn more about opportunities to study the trades at Lethbridge College, go to lethbridgecollege.ca/trades.
