Dimar sees the future of welding in Northland Workforce Training Center grads

Story originally published May, 2026 via The Buffalo News

Bobby Donohue started at Dimar Manufacturing Corporation in February 2024 as a general welder. Just two years later, he’s a lead on his shift, operating some of the company’s most high-tech and expensive machines: welding cobots (a portmanteau for collaborative robots).

“When we were consolidating into this location and into our Main Street location, I’ll be honest with you—I cherry picked who I wanted,” says Michael Balla, production manager at Dimar’s Research Parkway facility. “I knew Bobby had good experience, a lot of schooling. We were bringing in a cobot, and we knew we needed some high-level people to run it. We knew we needed some leadership, and he brought it.”

Donahue graduated from SUNY Alfred State College’s Welding Technology program at Northland Workforce Training Center (NWTC) in May 2024 and started working at Dimar before he even completed his degree. Most of their hires at Dimar are welders who learned on the job or in beginner-level training in high school. Balla says the NWTC difference is clear to see, noting the intensive, specialized courses students take.

“Coming from Northland, they were razor-focused on welding for two years,” he says.

A cobot allows the welder to program a mechanical arm to repeat the same welding job over and over, resulting in an extremely consistent final product and increased productivity. The key, however, is that the welder needs to have the practical experience to complete the job themselves as well as the ability to program each movement of the machine and supervise the process, ensuring there are no mistakes in any of the many steps involved.

NWTC is located on the East Side of Buffalo and is an extension campus for Alfred State as well as SUNY Erie Community College. In addition to welding, it offers degrees and certificates in technical careers such as Electrical Construction and Maintenance Electrician, CNC Manufacturing and Machining and Mechatronics. Staff also assist students with job readiness, communication skills and professionalism.

Bobby says his time at NWTC played a part in his readiness for the higher levels of responsibility at Dimar.

[Welding department chair Guy Hughson] would give us some tight deadlines, so that we knew when we got into the industry what it would be like,” he says. “He made sure that everybody had some sort of robotics experience, too. I would say Northland set us up very well for whatever we get into.”

Dimar Senior Project Manager Dan Yousett says welding, along with most other industrial arts, has an aging workforce and is seeing a skills gap in younger employees thanks to a lack of career training opportunities in schools.

NWTC is helping to close that gap. Dimar has hired several graduates besides Bobby, including Abdiel Fuentes, who completed SUNY Erie’s Mechatronics program. He’s been with Dimar for three years and has risen in the ranks to operate some of the company’s most complex machinery. Both he and Donahue have impressed with their drive and work ethic.

“They want to learn, and they’re eager to take on new challenges,” Yousett says. “Northland did a great job preparing them to enter the workforce.”