New and Innovative Partnerships Creating Educational Opportunities

At Pioneer Technology Center (PTC), education is paramount. By growing successful individuals in character and mind, Pioneer Tech has stood at the forefront of area educational leadership. However, as any of the qualified staff or instructors at PTC will tell you, no educational offering is one-dimensional.

Often, it is through community involvement and leadership that students are offered innovative and exciting new educational opportunities. The Automotive Youth Educational System (AYES) and the Manufacturing Education Training Systems (METS) partnerships are living examples of how business and industry in the community are offering advanced educational opportunities for students and creating a win-win partnership for everyone involved.

Darin Killough, director of instructional services, and Steve Ketchum, worksite learning coordinator, have seen first-hand the AYES and the METS program and the effect they have had on PTC students.

“AYES and METS bring the latest and greatest technologies right to the classroom,” explains Ketchum. Nationally, AYES encourages young people to consider satisfying careers in retail automotive service, and prepare them for entry-level career positions or advanced studies in automotive technology. Locally, the AYES program, which started last school year, unites representatives from area automobile manufacturers, dealers, instructors, and school officials.

While the new technologies are highly beneficial, perhaps the most important aspect of both the AYES and the METS program is the relationships it builds with industry.

“These are industry driven programs, states Ketchum. “Whether it is donating the cars, tools, time and expertise to the curriculum, it also helps build important relationships with the industry and develops future opportunities for the students as well as the dealers and manufacturers offering the training to the young technicians.”

Along with the vehicles and parts used as teaching tools, several AYES students are receiving opportunities to participate in summer internships with the local dealers. As students are now job-shadowing and seeing their training in action, an internship is the next step in a long and valuable relationship between the business and industry partners and PTC.

While AYES works to bring opportunities to students interested in the automobile industry, METS focuses more on how to train machinists for local and area manufacturers. The METS partnership was established in November 2004 and it is intended to build a bridge between industry and education by allowing highly qualified students to continue their education in the workplace. Through fieldtrips, job shadowing, internships, and possible employment, PTC students are be able to establish skills and good habits of lifelong learning in the manufacturing industry.

Responsibility of the manufacturers includes serving on the METS business and education council, providing guidance and counsel on the school's curriculum and overall operation, providing non-paid job shadowing opportunities, sponsoring students for a paid summer internship, and supporting mentor training at the factory.

“The true benefits of the METS partnership provides a source of qualified, entry-level technicians, an educational process, and an opportunity to "grow our own" at the local level,” explains Killough. “The METS and the AYES are great working models. With workplace needs constantly changing, we are continuously trying to improve and provide a better quality education for students.”

These new and innovative partnerships are truly creating educational opportunities, which meet both the needs of the industry and the educational needs of students pursuing careers in those industries.