Northeast Community College offers many vocational degree programs, one of them being the drafting program. The drafting department was one of the first programs offered when Northeastern Nebraska College and Northeast Nebraska Technical College merged in 1973. Degrees are offered in architectural, structural, and industrial facility drafting.

Students can get an Associate of Applied Science degree (AAS) or they can get a general drafting diploma or certificate. Instructor Michael Holcomb says there are many benefits to spending two years at a community college instead of four years at a university. “The graduates of a four-year school will spend two extra years and start with the same exact position, same exact pay.” Holcomb says that Northeast is unique because the school is one of the only drafting programs that offers a degree in structural drafting.

Students learn a variety of skills in their classes. “They’re going to learn a lot of the fundamentals of drafting, which is line weight and line thickness and line types and they’re going to learn how to read plans what they look for on plans and they’re going to learn about CAD. We do 2D AutoCAD, 3D AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, just lots of different software,” says Holcomb.

If a student wants to go on with an advanced degree, Holcomb says many employers will help. “Most every company they can go to work for that employs the drafters will pay for their advanced degree. Completely, one hundred percent.”

Holcomb’s co-instructor, Lynnette Frey, who is new this year, describes the program this way: “I like to tell people it’s everything from soup to nuts. Whether it’s a structure, a vehicle, a shoe, or whatever it is, everything has to have documentation so that someone can build it.”

For more information on the drafting program at Northeast Community College, visit the school’s website.