All noticeable change is born from initiative. Ideas can come to anyone, but turning dreams into reality takes action and dedication. It requires a willingness to accept a challenge, hard as it may be, and determine the reward is worth the risk and heartache.
In central California, a brave group of educators and business leaders are doing just that. And they’re doing it with the aftermarket in mind.
Beginning in 2018, Fresno, Calif., will be ground zero to one of the largest, most advanced and professional medium- and heavy-duty diesel technician training programs in North America. The region will tout a network of high school and collegiate institutions with accredited and ASE certified student training programs, developed specifically to aid a large local student population interested in technical careers and the local businesses eager to hire them.
Overwhelmingly supported by area educational administrators and business owners, developers of this pioneering educational ecosystem believe they’ve created a blueprint that can be replicated nationwide.
In talking with many of them at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) in January, I can’t help but agree.
The aftermarket has spent years trying to determine the best way to recruit youth into this industry, and I believe the people in California have discovered it.
Technical programs don’t just fill the aftermarket’s employee shortage, they also offer the potential of a steady, well-paying career to students who otherwise might not know such opportunities exist.
In Central California, where poverty rates are high and a substantial portion of high school students do not attend college, technical education is an escape. It gives students a path to a future worth fighting for.
That’s what hooked the administration in Madera, Calif., says Sheryl Sisil, director of College and Career Readiness for Madera Unified School District.
“For us it was really about business and employer partners saying there was a need,” she says. “In our area we try to be as connected and involved with industry as we can. We kept hearing about this need, and these career opportunities, and decided it was something we needed to pursue.”
“We could tell it was an area where we could expand,” adds Nick Deftereos, mechanized agriculture instructor at nearby Reedley College. “It was clear if we enhanced what we were doing there would be a lot of benefits.”
Both school’s administrators were equally moved by the opportunity, and within months, Reedley College, Madera Unified and the surrounding school districts in Fresno and Clovis, Calif., all began development on commercial vehicle tech training programs.
Supported by local aftermarket businesses, the schools are striving to build comprehensive programs that will provide students the best possible training to step out of school and directly into local service bays, says Mike Betts, chairman and CEO at Betts Company.
This includes offering internship programs with local service providers, ensuring each program is National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) accredited, and allowing students to receive ASE certification credits on specific vehicle systems that remain valid from the high school level through college and into the workforce.
“We’ve had 100 percent buy in from school officials,” Betts says. “Everyone has been collaborating to make the programs work.”
And that excitement and cooperation has not gone unnoticed. Each school has hundreds of kids eager to jump into its first classes, and even some state officials have headed to the Central Valley to see the education revolution first hand.
“We had the California Superintendent of Education come down and visit our facility because of what he’s hearing about our program and our model,” says Jason Mullikin, automotive technology coordinator at Clovis High School. “So people are seeing how important what we’re doing is [for our community].”
