The Automotive Department hosted 200 high school students in the Farallon Room, Building 12 to learn more about the Automotive Technology programs offered in Skyline College. Approximately 100 of those students were Dual Enrollment students from the South San Francisco Unified School District. The remainder of the students came from the Jefferson Union High School District and the San Francisco Unified School District.
The students viewed our recent promotional videos that are hosted on our website, listened to student speakers as well as our guest speaker, Advisory Board Member, Brain Reidy, Service and Parts Director of Peninsula Infiniti. Brian completed courses in the Skyline College Automotive program 20 years ago. Brian spoke truth to our high school students about the great opportunities in the automotive and transportation industry, highlighting that it is not uncommon for automotive technicians to earn over $100,000 a year.
Tom Broxholm, Automotive Program Coordinator, explained how the Skyline College program differs in a good way from traditional two year automotive programs, highlighting the extensive hands-on training that every student receives. Tom added that there is cost savings of close to $33,000 compared to for profit automotive training programs such as Universal Technical Institute (UTI). Tom also noted our industry partnerships with Nissan, Infinity, Audi, Subaru and Ford, and that the automotive department is currently in talks with Mercedes Benz to become a campus partner. These partnerships provide factory training for staff as well as training and internships for students. The students were then treated to a rare opportunity to tour the automotive department while observing classes in full swing.
The high school students were able to see what it would be like to take automotive training by visiting classes in session. Professor Julia Johnson’s class was working on engine removal and replacement, Vikas Sen’s class was working on wheel alignments, Ruben Parra’s class was working on testing computer control systems, Filipp Gleyzer’s class was diagnosing vehicle lighting systems and Tom Broxholm’s class was taking apart and repairing an automatic transaxle.
All the students and staff were then treated to lunch before they returned to their respective schools. All of this was made possible with the support from Strong Workforce Development and grant funds from Jacques M. Littlefield Foundation.
Article by Thomas G. Broxholm
