If you are planning a first job and career in drafting and design, you should be selective in exploring and enrolling in a training program. Not all drafting and design programs are the same in several ways. You will need to consider if the college is accredited and if the program is recognized as excellent by business and industry.
Your final destination program should offer smaller classes so you receive more hands-on experiences and more one-on-one instruction. You should expect to receive adequate knowledge and gain the skills necessary for success in your jobs. The following paragraphs provide some valuable advice in choosing a drafting and design program.
You Can’t Go Wrong with General Drafting and Design Programs
Although specialty drafting and design programs are available, they are not for most people because they don’t have a firm career goal or path in mind yet. Typically, your best approach is to enroll in a general drafting and design program that offers elective classes and labs in selective areas.
While engaged in your educational training, your instructors and the career services office will provide more insight into your needs, wants, and specific areas of drafting and design. Listen carefully to their advice and combine it with your ideas to create a career path in drafting and design.
Technical College Drafting and Design Programs Offer Smaller Classes
University and some community colleges tend to have large classes that are not conducive to hands-on training. Technical colleges on the other hand usually provide smaller classes and class/lab schedules for working students. Smaller classes and labs give students more opportunities to interact with other students as well as instructors.
If you find it hard to hear or have a shorter attention span, smaller technical college classes and labs are for you. You will typically learn and retain more of what you experience each day. These schools ask you to take only a few general education classes, and this lets you concentrate on your major and program.
Expect to Gain Specific Knowledge in Drafting and Design Programs
Drafting and design programs offer the knowledge and skills students need for success in their first and all jobs in their careers. Locate a college program that offers these essentials:
- A well-round orientation and introduction to drafting and design specialties.
- Knowledge of drawing sketches and creating technical drawings.
- Understanding blueprints, design plans, and using CAD software.
- Knowledge of parts and components to draw final products for manufacturing.
- How mathematics plays a role in drafting and design.
- Knowledge of drafting equipment and supplies to produce drawings.
- Learning technical writing for communication.
Students also must grasp how to convert field notes and data from engineers, surveyors, plant operators, and architects into sketches and technical drawings.
| “If you are planning a first job and career in drafting and design, you should be selective in exploring and enrolling in a training program. Typically, your best approach is to enroll in a general drafting and design program that offers elective classes and labs in selective areas.” |
Look for the Needed Industry Skills in a Program
The next thing to look for in a drafting and design program is the skills that are demanded in your first entry-level job. These skills include a well-rounded base in the following:
- How to draw freehand sketches, multi-view and auxiliary plans
- Creating pictorial and assembly drawings for architecture and manufacturing
- How engineers, architects, and manufacturing operators use notes and field data
- Skills in using CAD, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil-Survey software, and Windows Operating Systems
- Creating residential, commercial, and industrial drawings as well as components, manufactured products, devices, and machinery drawings
- How to work autonomously and in teams
Your instructors may offer additional skills from their pool of knowledge and work experiences that will be helpful.
Will the Student Services Office Assist You with Finding a Job?
A well-trained career services counselor keeps your best personal and career interests in mind. In that first interview, you will be provided with numerous help in seeking a job and getting hired. This list is a standard set of guidelines and services this office offers students:
- Getting Started Packet
- Cover Letters and Resumes
- Thank You Sample Notes
- Interviewing Tips and Questions
- Behavioral Interviewing
- Questions Asked By Employers
- Questions You Can Ask Employers
You will find all these guidelines and services very helpful in the initial and follow-up interviews.
Make Sure the Drafting and Design Program Is Recognized
Lastly, make sure the drafting and design program is recognized by area businesses and industries as an excellent one. A college that fits this requirement is ITI Technical College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Our Associate of Occupational Studies (AOS) Program in Drafting and Design Technology is professionally organized to help graduates find entry-level jobs.
For more information about graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program, and other important information, please visit our website: https://www.iticollege.edu/disclosures
