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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Transportation

They are talking about this topic: Educational Partnerships

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Some participants request more relevant hands-on training in programs (i.e., exposure to new equipment and technology, including diagnostic equipment for automotive repair and modern trucks for diesel repair students).

Employer Quote Region
"They don't even get enough funding to buy basic supplies to do general stuff with what they have. They don't have the funding to have the basic stuff. How do you keep up with technology on the budget for 25 years ago?" Central
"The John Deere Corporation had this need, so they went to the community college and said, 'Hey, I'll tell you what. We'll bring our tractors to you. We'll provide some tooling. We'll provide some of our technicians. And we want to pair up with you.' And the community college, they just really snapped to attention and said, 'How can we help?' And it actually worked out really well, that shared partnership there. I think that's something that should probably be revisited in Minnesota. We need to get big trucks over there. Get some folks over there with expertise so when [the students] graduate they're much more up to speed. Now, granted, you can't take over every specific car. There's certainly some limitations, but I think there's still a lot of ground that could be plowed there." Central
"I've been on both sides of the aisle. I've been on the community side, and I'm in higher education now. And one of the things I've seen, for example, I went through an aircraft maintenance technician program, a certified aircraft mechanic, and said, 'this is 60s technology and this is the 90s.' What I'm hearing is that this kind of holds true to the trucking industry. We were way behind and all because of finger-pointing. The school [would] say 'we need more money,' they kind of blame the industry for not helping out. I think there needs to be a partnership." Central
"I hope I don't offend anybody, but I think the big picture, the bottom line is we've got to get [MnSCU]...to understand that the two-year community tech college is just as important as the four-year universities and they need to be funded as such. This community college here in town is taking heavy and medium trucks...in a four-year old facility. Four years old. They can't even get a truck and a trailer in the building at the same time. How are they supposed to teach anybody anything? So it's funding. They need to give as much money to the two-year technical colleges. Everything that we're talking about here. They've got to [have nicer facilities] to get top-ranked students, so the students don't think they have to just go to four-year universities. [They should see that] they can make a living in the trades. That's the bottom line." Central
"We toured [the local tech college] last week and we kind of joked about it. When they go through engines, they're bringing in a 350 Chevy out of the grain truck. I would love to have a whole slew of brand new, new technology vehicles there. Newer engines, smaller displacement, more power, V6s and those kind of things rather than training on [old equipment]. We rarely get to take one of those apart in my shop, if ever." Northwest
"[E]specially in the schools, they don't have the funds [for] technology to prepare the students. [T]hese schools have been fighting it for a long time [to get] diagnostic equipment." Southwest