College of New Caledonia's welding students can breathe a sigh of relief now that they've been relocated out of an improperly ventilated area.
But changes to the welding program and possible delays in finalizing the course is causing frustration among some students.
The students were moved from 16 welding booths in the newly constructed trades and technical education building back into the old trades centre yesterday after a meeting explaining the problems on Wednesday.
Over 60 welders, power engineers and millwrights students were reportedly put at risk due to the fumes.
The course structure has now been altered to accommodate the relocation, with practical classes being scaled back in favour of theory courses. And for some students, it means finishing their course about a week later than originally scheduled.
The situation has led to some disgruntled students.
"I am not impressed that we the studentS have to deal with this when we're there to be trained," said one student, who declined to be named.
CNC director of communications Randall Heidt said the situation is "unfortunate" but the issues must be addressed.
"The important thing is we take the safety of our students seriously and we want to make sure we have proper ventilation for welding for them so they're not breathing in bad air," said Heidt.
Now an architect and engineer have been called in to look at the new structure's problems.
According to Heidt, there were no signs of problems during the initial testing at the building, but once classes got going with a full complement of welding booths running, lack of air circulation became apparent.
"We've known for a few weeks now... and just haven't come up with a solution yet, but we're hoping to by next week," said Heidt.
Although there are about 52 welding booths in the new building, Industry Training Authority rules only allow 16 students per class.
Moving 16 of the booths out allows for classes to continue running simultaneously, Heidt explained.
"That number should be fine for the ventilation," he said.
The nearly $20-million building was built to replace the existing 50-year-old trades centre and met the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold standard.
The 75,000-square foot centre contains eight trade shops, 11 classrooms and four computer labs and was funded on a 50-50 basis by the federal and provincial governments Knowledge Infrastructure Programs.
Along with welding, the building is also home to machinist, industrial mechanic-millwright, planermill technician, automotive collision repair, plumbing, engineering technology, mining technician and process operations programs.
