HISTORY OF ARCON TRAINING CENTER

THE HISTORY OF OUR GWO TRAINING ORGANIZATION

Arcon Training Center is a certified women-owned business that specializes in both Onshore and Offshore GWO training. Founded in 2015, Arcon Training Center is an arm of the Arcon Welding Equipment Company, which dates back to its origin in 1999. In 2012 Arcon Welding Equipment was approached by the The Business Network for Offshore Wind to help address the growing shortage of trained welders in the United States and has been involved with the Network ever since.

In preparation for the emerging offshore wind projects in our region, Arcon secured a grant from the MEA (Maryland Energy Administration) to start a welding training facility in Salisbury, Maryland. That first facility was a meager 3,500 square ft site that was able to train up to eight welding students at a time. Arcon partnered with a local community college, Wor-Wic Community College, to help with curriculum and implementation. The original welding courses have been expanded on over the years to the multi-process courses currently being taught at the training center.
 

In 2017 the training center moved into its current home. An over 18,000 square ft facility, adding more classrooms and shop space, increasing our total welding student limit to 16! Shortly after that in March of 2018, Arcon expanded their programs to include a Metal Fabrication training program at the behest of local employers as a natural evolution of the Welding program. This was done with an additional grant from the MEA. Additionally, along the way Arcon has helped to keep these programs funded from the Maryland EARN grant (Employment Advancement Right Now). The exceptional track record for placing welders into positions upon graduation, is unsurpassed. We have had not only employers attend graduation ceremonies, but senators, city council members, even Maryland’s Governor Larry Hogan has attended.

In early 2019, Arcon was approached by a few OEM’s and developers involved in wind energy. They made the introduction to AIS (Advanced Industrial Solutions), and we were asked to investigate what AIS did, as there would be a similar need upcoming in the United States.

In August of 2019 key members of the Arcon training center made a research trip to Newcastle, England to meet with representatives of AIS (Advanced industrial Solutions), one of the largest GWO (Global Wind Organisation) training providers in the world. We needed to see what might be involved in opening a GWO Training Facility here in the USA. A few months later, the representatives from AIS made a trip to review our current operations here in the states to see if we might be able to do so in our current facility. December of 2019 AIS signed a contract with us to help us build a GWO training facility.

January of 2020 Arcon Training Center sent two representatives to partake in a month long “Train the Trainer” program at the Newcastle site of AIS. These instructors returned in early March of 2020 able to train additional instructors for the Arcon Training Center. As the country went into full COVID lockdown, construction of the GWO training operation continued.

November of 2020 Arcon received their audit for GWO Certification. That audit enabled Arcon Training Center to begin offering GWO BST (Basic Safety Training) courses in Working at Heights (WAH), Manual Handling (MH), First Aid (FA), and Fire Awareness (FAW).

February of 2021 saw our next audit specifically for our Sea Survival (SS) program, as the Sea Survival site was still under construction in November of 2020. Completing that audit enabled Arcon Training Center to become one of only two sites in the USA to be able to deliver GWO Sea Survival courses!

January of 2022 Arcon Training Center sent an additional representative to partake in a month long “Train the Trainer” program, this time for the BTT (Basic Technical Training) courses at the Newcastle site of AIS.

June of 2022 Arcon received their audit for GWO BTT certification. That audit enabled Arcon Training Center to begin offering GWO BTT (Basic Technical Training) courses in Electrical, Mechanical and Hydraulics.

Call us today at (888) 216-8927 to learn more or begin a training plan.