Want to be a welder? Able to do your best work in class when much of the world is asleep? If so, Community College of Allegheny County has a course of study for you -- "midnight welding."

It's what happens when an economic downturn sends more students flocking back to campus seeking skills than a college has the lab capacity to accommodate.

The 18-credit, "fast-track" program will be offered this spring at CCAC's West Hills center in Oakdale. The Monday-to-Thursday program will meet from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. beginning Jan. 25.

Caffeine not included.

Two-year colleges in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are reporting a surge in demand for instruction. At CCAC, credit enrollment overall is up by 5 percent this fall, but double-digit increases are evident in certain career fields and in the trades, officials said.

With demand for welders rising, and with more people unemployed, one area of big growth at CCAC is Welding Technology. Enrollment that stood at 29 students in fall 2008 has ballooned to 109 this fall -- an increase of 276 percent.

That has left the West Hills center's only welding lab at full capacity, with classes in session 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The center is not open on Sundays.

Unable to add lab space -- at least not immediately -- CCAC says it instead has moved deeper into off-peak hours.

"Actually, a lot of these students prefer midnight or late night hours because it fits their schedules better," said John Ginther, an instructor and head of CCAC's welding program. "A lot of them are displaced workers, or they have child-care issues or they have part-time jobs."

The spring "midnight welding" program, which will run from Jan. 25 through June 21, incorporates the same curriculum as the college's other welding certificate courses, officials said. It comprises six separate classes: Welding Fundamentals, Advanced Welding, Blueprint Reading for Welders, Prep for Welding Certification, MIG & TIG Processes and Brazing and Welding.

Mr. Ginther said that with the average age of a welder at 55, the industry is bracing for a wave of retirements. Demand is strong, he said, in various areas including maintenance welding, fabrication and bridge welding,

He said those who complete the program will receive a CCAC certificate and an industry certificate from the American Welding Society. It will qualify them for jobs starting at $12 to $20 an hour, he added.

Statewide, community college enrollment is up by 10 percent this fall from fall 2008 -- an all-time high, said Diane Bosak, executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges. She said those 13,074 additional students are about equal to "one entire new community college," and "every college is doing what it can to accommodate students and adjust schedules and operational hours."

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