TSTC’s Career Services department hosts industry visit

(RED OAK, Texas) – Texas State Technical College’s North Texas campus hosted a representative of GAF, a Standard Industries company, who visited students on Monday, July 8.

GAF is a nationwide commercial and residential roofing materials manufacturer with Texas locations in Dallas, Ennis and Gainesville. The company will open an asphalt shingle recycling facility in Corsicana by the end of the year.

Teresa Truong, a company recruiter, talked to students in TSTC’s Electrical Power and Controls program and Industrial Systems program.

Truong told students the company is recruiting for its maintenance and operations departments. She said applicants need to know how machinery operates, be able to work with high voltage, and have good troubleshooting skills on programmable logic controllers. Truong said new employees also need to be teachable.

Truong said several of GAF’s facilities operate on a 24/7 schedule, which means that maintenance technicians are needed to keep production lines going.

Production operators are another key to the shingle-making process.

“You are going to be watching the production line, making sure we are producing our shingles,” Truong said. “The production line is very long to produce these shingles.”

Jacob White, of Ennis, is in his third semester pursuing a certificate of completion in Industrial Systems Mechanic – Electrical. He attended the presentation not only because GAF is in his hometown, but also to see what maintenance opportunities there are.

“I like taking stuff apart and putting them together,” White said. “It (Industrial Systems) is a jack-of-all-trades.”

Alicia Cruz, TSTC’s Career Services director for the Waco campus, said campus visits from companies like GAF enable students to get different perspectives on how to use their certificates of completion or associate degrees.

“Ellis County is booming with industry right now, and being so close to campus allows those students avenues to stay in their home base area but still connect with great career possibilities,” she said.

For more information on GAF, go to gaf.com.

For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.