Lisle’s Universal Technical Institute helps transportation employers incentivize career training
LISLE – As elected officials struggle to fund higher education and expand vocational career training programs, employers in Illinois are working with industry partners to encourage students to complete career training programs at technical schools. Some employers are now offering tuition reimbursement, and other hiring incentives, to help pay for technical education.
Success Looks Like Me: City students learn about STEM careers
The Communities of Giving Legacy Initiative’s Success Looks Like Me project is helping some Buffalo Public high school students learn about STEM careers in the automotive world. WBFO’s Focus on Education Reporter Eileen Buckley tells us this program provides low-income, minority students with a chance to interact with local and national leaders of color who are successful adults.
Automotive program builds good people
GRAND BLANC — When Denny Holt came to Grand Blanc High School in 2011, he wasn’t sure what he had gotten himself into. As the new Automotive Instructor, he had big dreams and goals for the Automotive Program, but was uncertain about what kind of support he would receive.
However, he soon found out the school district was behind him 110 percent. “I told Clarence Garner my first year, if you give me the resources I need, I’ll build the best Automotive Program in the state of Michigan.” And that’s what he has done.
Volvo Construction Equipment holds educational program
On Wednesday, April 6, approximately 25 students from the automotive program at Broughton High School and the Diesel Tech program at Wilkes Community College visited Volvo Construction Equipment provider ASC Construction Equipment USA LLC in Raleigh, North Carolina, to learn more about how they could be a solution to what has become a near-crisis skills gap in North America.
Toyota donates 45 engines to technical schools in north Alabama
Before Leslie Pitts became a student at Limestone County Career Technical Center, he was working on engines on a small farm where he grew up.
The 10th grader wants to put his experience to work someday by building engines for companies like Toyota’s Huntsville plant, the only Toyota facility in the world to make four-cylinder, V6 and V8 engines under one roof.
Pitts is one of many north Alabama students who will benefit from Toyota’s recent donation of 45 V6 engines to automotive programs in Madison, Limestone, Morgan, Marshall, DeKalb and Cullman counties. Many students in those programs were previously using engines that are 10 years old.
Local students take home medals in statewide technical-education competition
Chico >> Several local students took home awards from a statewide SkillsUSA competition in San Diego earlier this month.
SkillsUSA, a career and technical education organization serving students in training programs in technical, skilled and service occupations, put on the competition. Nearly 2,000 students competed in various categories from March 31-April 3.
Students from Pleasant Valley High, Chico High and Butte College placed in competitions ranging from engineering technology/design and public speaking to welding and TV production. They were invited to compete after qualifying at regional competitions.
Schools invest in future workforce
DELAVAN — As unemployment numbers continue to drop and the labor force tightens, the demand for workers in the trades and manufacturing continues to grow.
The future members of that workforce now are in middle school and high school, where they are increasingly exposed to the skills they’ll need.
Legislators and leaders in economic development say developing a skilled workforce is the No. 1 issue facing businesses in Wisconsin.
Georgia school focuses on skills local employers say they need
The Carroll County College and Career Academy in west Georgia serves students from high schools all over the county. They come to it for what’s called, these days, “Career and Technical Education.” In addition to auto repair and welding, students learn IT skills and video production.
Seventeen-year-old Ivie Newton studies auto mechanics there. “This is our shop room,” she said, giving a short tour of her classroom, which is pretty much an auto shop. “Sadly, our lift is broken is over there, but we do everything hands-on out here.”
Newton said after high school she plans on going to the technical college next door, then working on cars.
Amistad High named a model school by California Superintendent
State Superintendent Tom Torlakson named Amistad High School in Indio a “model continuation high school” for the sixth consecutive time, a designation the school will carry for the next three years.
Amistad, a school with about 300 students in Desert Sands Unified School District, is one of 37 continuation school to receive the designation this year. A continuation school is an alternative high school diploma program for students 16 years or older who are at risk of not graduating due to a lack of credits, family circumstances or the need to have a flexible schedule because of a job outside of school, according to the California Department of Education.
Business Leaders Push For More Career And Technical Education In Arizona
The Arizona Board of Education, acting in its capacity as the State Board for Vocational and Technological Education, toured West-MEC’s campus in north Phoenix, where Director C.J. Williams ran through programs ranging from automotive repair to veterinary science.
“We do have real animals that we board on site,” he said. “We work with Maricopa County Animal Care and Control and Pinal County Animal Care and Control.”
West-MEC’s programs fall under the umbrella known as career and technical education, or CTE. Typically, high school students spend half a day at a traditional campus and the other half at a campus offering CTE.