WGTC Welding Student Begins Welding Career at Local Plant

West Georgia Technical College welding student Jacob Keaton recently started as a mechanical contractor at Georgia Power Plant Wansley for the fall outage. Keaton, who lives in Heard County, began as one of the first dual enrolled students at the Franklin Instructional Site and is now enrolled as a traditional student in the welding and joining technology program.

 “Our students continue to be a shining example for excellence in the classroom and in the workforce,” said West Georgia Technical College President Dr. Skip Sullivan. “We commend Jacob on his hard work and are proud of his success.”               

Keaton began in the dual enrollment program while he was an 11th grader at Heard County High School. It was then that he decided to pursue welding as a career. His welding instructor, Joe Pennington, spent many years working at Plant Wansley and was able to share that experience with him.

“Welding always seemed cool to me and really fun to do,” said Keaton. “Joe really influenced me to go to Plant Wansley. I wanted to follow in his footsteps.”

In addition to Keaton’s success, the Franklin Instructional Site welding program also has three other students placed in local welding positions, with one student accepting a position at Yamaha.

“We’re pleased to have our dual enrollment program. It opens up a lot of opportunity in the community for our students such as Jacob,” said Pennington. “We hope to see more of it. It’s an asset to the program and to the community. The students are dedicated, they want it and they’re going to make it all the way.”

West Georgia Technical College, with campuses in Carroll, Coweta, Douglas, Haralson and Troup counties, class sites in Heard and Meriwether counties, and a virtual learning campus, offers more than 115 associate degree, diploma and technical certificate programs of study. A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, West Georgia Tech is the third largest of the state’s 25 technical colleges.