It was just the second day of Juan Arellano’s pre-apprenticeship training, but, by Tuesday morning, he was already practicing welding skills, albeit without the high heat required for the fabrication process.
The 19-year-old strapped on a virtual reality headset — a piece of over-the-head equipment not too different from a welding helmet, he said — and set to work fusing virtual materials in solid, straight lines with a mock welding gun.
Arellano hopes to be trained as a plumber and pipe fitter, a skilled trade he said will put his affinity for math to good use. Two days into a pre-apprenticeship program — and excited to try his hand at virtual welding — it seems he’s made the right career choice.
“Now that we’re trying this, it’s like, addicting,” Arellano said. “I just want to get better at it.”
And he’ll have the opportunity to keep getting better, thanks to a new mobile training unit and trades training program created through partnerships between the local plumbers and pipe fitters union, Northern New Mexico College, the North Central New Mexico Economic Development District and the state Department of Workforce Solutions.
