Plymouth High School and the Van Horn Automotive Group has formed a partnership to better train auto technicians.Van Horn has agreed to donate $15,000 per year for the next three years to upgrade the PHS transportation lab. The first installment was presented at the Dec. 20 Board of Education meeting. Since then, PHS auto technology instructor Mike Fels has been working with Van Horn to determine the best uses for the money. The discussions also have included Lakeshore Technical College, the high school’s partner in the LTC-Plymouth Science and Technology Center, which could offer articulation agreements to give credit or advanced standing to PHS auto students. In addition to the funds, Van Horn has offered to share its own shop, equipment, vehicles and personnel to enhance the education of auto tech students.
The company also has offered to provide internships and job shadowing. One PHS student already is working for Van Horn. Fels has visited Van Horn’s shop to see their operation in action, giving him invaluable insights as he prepares students for eventual employment.He next plans to take students to tour the shop. Van Horn also has offered to let students use its facility to work on their own cars during weekends.
The partnership came about after Van Horn donated uniforms to the auto tech students for several years. Company representatives met with Fels after he joined the faculty in the fall to get a tour of the lab and hear his ideas for the program. They asked him to create a dream list of equipment and tools, then met with Superintendent Clark Reinke and board president Mark Rhyan to work out an agreement.
Fels is excited about the resulting opportunity to offer his students more abilities. For example, current diagnostic electronic equipment in the lab can scan only vehicles made through about 2006. Experience with more modern vehicles — which are increasingly dependent on computers — would benefit the students greatly, he said.
That dependence on computers has been the greatest change in auto technology in the past decade, Fels said. The field is now more video games than wrenches. And what once were options on a Mercedez-Benz eventually become standard on every car a few years later.
Van Horn wants students to realize that being auto technician is a good job, Theresa Van Horn told the school board, noting that the company is hoping to help produce future employees. ”Good technicians are very hard to find,” she said. “And there’s nothing better than getting one out of our own community.”
Plymouth is known in the state as an automotive-ingrained city, said Fels. ”Plymouth is an automotive mecca,” he said. “How can I make this something even bigger? This partnership is a pretty good start.”