With a school motto of “bridging academics and technology,” it’s no surprise that instructors at the J. Harley Bonds Career Center in Greer, SC enjoy using advanced technology like welding simulators. The school aims to teach students the skills they need to pursue an associate degree, a four-year degree or a career following graduation. By combining academics and advanced technology, this technical school enables students to pursue career interests like animation, culinary arts, machine tooling and welding while they earn high school credit.
One piece of technology that has been particularly successful at the career center is the guideWELD® VR welding simulator by Realityworks. Since December 2014, center instructors have been using this tool to teach welding students basic techniques while emphasizing safety and saving money on the consumables that are needed for live welding.
Rodian Manjarres is a second-year student with a lot of experience using guideWELD® VR. Her first experience with the welding simulator occurred after her welding instructors, Todd Varholy and Eddie Squires, encouraged her to use it to prepare for her Action Skills competition at that year’s SkillsUSA National Skills & Leadership Conference.
Because the welding simulator provides users with real-time feedback on basic welding form and positioning in a virtual environment, both instructors felt that it would allow competition judges to understand Rodian’s welding skills more easily than if Rodian just explained how she welded.
Learn how Rodian trained on the welding simulator and eventually honed her skills enough to beat most of her classmates – and keep an eye on her angle while conducting live welding – by reading her complete customer story.
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