(MARSHALL, Texas) – Texas State Technical College’s Precision Machining Technology program in Marshall will offer its first night classes starting this fall.
“The goal of this is to try and help those who are working during the day to have an option for taking classes in the evening and to try to grow the PMT program in Marshall,” said Daniel Nixon, a TSTC program instructor. “I am looking forward to being able to serve our students during the evening hours.”
Kelly Overby, business retention and expansion director at the Longview Economic
Development Corporation, applauded the night classes.
“We have an under-employed workforce, and not very many people can afford to just not work and go to school,” she said. “For TSTC to make the decision to offer the classes at night gives the affordability so people can work a full-time job and go to school at night to get their skills higher up and make more money.”
There are more than 1,500 computer numerically controlled machine tool programmers for metals and plastics in Texas, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers are concentrated in the Dallas-Fort Worth and The Woodlands-Houston-Sugar Land areas. The annual mean wage is more than $58,000, according to the agency.
Faye Pettigrew, human resources director at Tyler Pipe and Coupling, said the company uses job search engines to fill available positions.
“The need is there,” she said. “A skilled trade alone, whether it is CNC (computer numerically controlled), electrical or millwright individuals, is extremely hard to fill.”
TSTC in Marshall’s program will continue to offer day classes. The program offers a machining certificate and an Associate of Applied Science degree in Precision Machining Technology.
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
