GFC MSU launches Industrial Technician program this fall
Great Falls College MSU is currently enrolling students in its new Industrial Technician program.
The program prepares graduates for jobs maintaining or constructing industrial machinery that could be used in assembly lines, pumps, valves, printing presses and elsewhere.
“Graduates have several options,” said Cody Strunk, Industrial Technician program director. “They can go into manufacturing, the oil and gas industry, or they can go into wind energy.”
The new Industrial Technician program, which will start its first class of students this fall, grew out of the college’s previous wind energy program. After a construction boom of wind farms in Montana, wind energy jobs dropped off, as it takes few people to maintain the wind farms once they’re built. That program transitioned to become the Renewable Energy Technician program and now the Industrial Technician program.
“The skills industrial technicians need are similar to what wind energy techs need,” Strunk said.
However, the new Industrial Technician program focuses on a wider range of skills in order to give graduates more options when they enter the job market.
The one-year program focuses on electrical and mechanical skills.
“They’ll learn about motors and generators, machining, hydraulics and pneumatics,” Strunk said.
The Industrial Technician program was developed after industry partners told college administrators that workers with this skill set were hard to find.
For example, Pasta Montana uses complex, specialized machinery that turns raw flour and water into pasta.
“Industrial technicians are responsible for maintaining the equipment that produces the product,” Strunk said. “They have to be very mechanically inclined.”
Students learn to read technical manuals, disable and repair equipment when there is a problem, perform tests to make sure equipment is running smoothly, and adjust and calibrate machinery as needed.
The Industrial Technician program is very hands-on.
“I try to do more lab time than classroom time,” Strunk said.
The Industrial Technician lab at Great Falls College MSU features state-of-the-art machining equipment, a 3D printer and other tools that allows students to get hands-on experience before they enter the workplace.
The median annual wage for industrial technicians in Montana is $51,533, and there will be a projected growth for industrial technician jobs of 26.7 percent between 2010 and 2020.
Students can apply now to start the Great Falls College MSU Industrial Technician program in the fall.
For more information, contact:
Lewis Card
Executive Director—Development, Communications & Marketing
Phone: 406.771.4412, email: [email protected]
Erin Granger
Marketing Specialist
Phone: 406.771.4314; email: [email protected]
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