HAMMOND — Going to college is not something Hunter Zager is interested in.
"I hate being in school all day," he said.
Zager, a senior from Munster High School, prefers a more hands-on career. That preference is what ultimately drew him to the welding program at the Hammond Area Career Center.
The career center, also known as the ACC, provides career technical education programming for 10 high schools in Lake County.
Through the welding program, Zager secured a paid internship at Consolidated Fabrication and Constructors, a company located in Gary
Zager and four other students work at Consolidated three hours a day in the afternoon, four days a week, while they attend classes at their home schools in the mornings. Â
Out of the roughly 40 students enrolled in the welding program, 11 of them have internships, with most of the students interning at Consolidated.
Kyle Behary, a senior at Highland High School, interns at Consolidated in the mornings. He expressed how much more he had learned being in a real work environment, compared to the controlled setting in his welding courses.Â
"Taking the skills here (at the ACC) and being able to use them in the field, it was a difference. It really changed the scope of thingsÂ
Evan Skowronski, a graduate of Lake Central High School, was previously part of the welding program at the ACC and interned at Consolidated last year before working there full-time.
He said it was nice to work with the current cohort of interns.
"I can see where I was a year ago and I get to teach them everything I get to know now," Skowronski said. "It's been fun honestly getting to repeat to someone all the knowledge I've gotten."
Patrick Spork, president of Consolidated, said the training offered by welding programs like the one at the ACC is a big help for them, as many workers with the knowledge and experience of the trade are retiring.
"The way people learned the trade in the past was you worked with this guy that you know or this guy that you're assigned to," Spork said.
In addition to providing training and internship opportunities, students in the welding program also have the chance to get professionally certified.
In April, 21 students from the ACC took their welding certification test at the Calumet Welding Center in Griffith. All of the students passed the test.
"What we like to concentrate on is getting these guys a job after they leave here," said Eric Woodbury, the welding instructor at the ACC.
Tony Przewoznik, a paraprofessional, emphasizes the tremendous value offered by the welding and other trade programs at the career center.
"We need craftspeople out (there) anyways, we have for years, and what this class puts out is just phenomenal," said Prezewoznik.