More diversity boosts economy

A front pager...

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

As the newest addition to Western Wyoming Community College’s vocational training courses, SolidWorks raises eyebrows about whether it caters to an existing labor need or is trying to create a market.

David Urasky, vocational instructor at the Carbon County Higher Education Center, has been teaching SolidWorks for two years, but this spring semester is the first it’s being taught as a credit-earning course under the umbrella of Western Wyoming Community College. Urasky is the course’s sole teacher, holding his classes at the Rawlins outreach center.

SolidWorks is a software program that enables three dimensional drawing and analysis of parts, generally meant for use in engineering. With its many features, Urasky believes it steps beyond AutoCAD, a program that primarily works in two-dimensions. Unlike AutoCAD, however, a machinist, welder or manufacturer can use and modify the drawings “with a click of a button,” Urasky said.

Urasky has two students from Hyland Enterprises in his class of seven. Hyland does fabrication work mostly in cooperation with the energy industry. The Hyland welders have previously hand-drawn the majority of their work.

“It sounded like a good way for us to both take our client’s ideas and turn them into an actual drawing,” Hyland Enterprise President David Nightingale said. “So they can see what they want (virtually), and also for our welders and fabricators to use as a plan to build off of.” He saw it as a way to improve the company’s time from conception to fabrication.

Many believe a course like SolidWorks could provide a personnel framework that might diversify the economy to include manufacturing, in much the same way Hyland has adopted the program. But the question remains whether the market is ripe.

SolidWorks is part of a vocational training program that caters to industry needs. Both CCHEC Director Dave Throgmorton and Western Wyoming Community College Dean of Academic Affairs Ken Fitschen aim to hear what industry leaders need and direct their programs accordingly.

Throgmorton held an open house Thursday to push forward on that initiative. “We want to keep the folks who live here, here,” he said.

With Hyland as the only business in Rawlins willing to adopt SolidWorks to either improve its products or develop new markets, students who complete Urasky’s SolidWorks program must either go to Casper or to other manufacturing areas, he said, because Rawlins lacks that industry.

Fitschen is unsure how much room there is to develop a program that caters to a nonexistent manufacturing labor force. He said the energy boom still has a monopoly on the vocational resources of Wyoming’s higher education facilities.

“We’re strengthening our instrumentation program,” Fitschen said. “We have a new oil and gas program, we have a new natural gas compression program, we’re getting into corrosion protection, which is related to the pipelines, and we’re offering safety certificates. We’re constantly meeting with industry lately to try and meet their technical needs.”

Western Wyoming Community College currently has some pieces of the puzzle necessary to put together a complete program that caters to manufacturing, Fitschen said. However, he feels it’s unwise to completely commit to a program at this stage.

“Would we be interested in diversifying the economy to include manufacturing?” Fitschen asked. “Yes. But it’s like the chicken and the egg thing in terms of this type of program. If we have the program and nobody is in it, then we’ve got a problem. Conversely, if we don’t have the program, will the new manufacturing companies be attracted to Rawlins or Rock Springs?”

When asked if manufacturing is in the foreseeable future for Rawlins, Mark Ducker, director of the Carbon County Economic Development Corporation, said “I would like to think it’s in the future for Rawlins. We still have a couple hurdles in that (manufacturing) needs personnel — a workforce — and with that comes a need for housing.”

Urasky seems to be targeting the first hurdle, personnel.

So can Rawlins adopt manufacturing as a stabilizing force in the economy? Urasky thinks so. With the railroad and the highway and space to grow, he said, Rawlins already has the framework. All it needs is the personnel, he said. However, Fitschen reiterated that “it’s a longer term conversation.”


Owner buys in

Chris and Tim Lawrence, a father and son in the welding shop of Hyland Enterprises, knocked on the door of the Carbon County Higher Education Center to sign up for the AutoCAD class, which they hoped would make drafting their products easier. However, David Urasky had another idea.

Urasky, CCHEC vocational instructor, showed up at Hyland to demonstrate the capabilities of the SolidWorks program to the Lawrence family, hoping the program would better suit their needs. “We saw it would save us a lot of time,” Chris Lawrence said. So they went to Hyland Enterprise President David Nightingale to proclaim the good news. Nightingale signed on immediately, Urasky said.


Course not widespread

The Carbon County Higher Education Center is one of the only institutions offering the SolidWorks course in the state, CCHEC vocational instructor David Urasky said.

He listed Casper College as the other. Rock Springs High School teaches the program as well, said Ken Fitschen, dean of academic affairs at Western Wyoming Community College. The University of Wyoming uses it in the engineering program, but expects the students to already be familiar with it, Urasky said.

Urasky’s SolidWorks classes may be available via the Internet at the 11 other outreach centers in Wyoming if there is a market, Fitschen said. The course would include a test issued by SolidWorks. An individual answering at least 70 percent correct would become certified as a SolidWorks associate to do three dimensional drafting work on an entry level basis, Urasky said.