Photo credit: Mark Bealo, Palomar College

As drones continue to become more popular for business and personal use, the demand for professional drone pilots and the need to educate the public on how drones should be used has never been greater.

A group of educators and industry professionals in the San Diego area hopes to increase awareness and promote career opportunities this summer at Palomar Drone-Con. The conference will be held July 6 at Palomar College in San Marcos.

Conference organizer Wing Cheung, Department Chair of Earth, Space and Environmental Sciences at Palomar College said he hopes the event will help strengthen partnerships in an area that has been called the “undisputed drone capital of America.” Read More →

San Bernardino Valley College Heavy Duty Vehicle/Diesel Program Lab

San Bernardino Valley College (SBVC), through its Heavy Duty Vehicle/Diesel Program, has joined the Southern California Regional Transit Training Consortium (SCRTTC), a non-profit organization of 46 community college and transit agency members now statewide, here .

As an SCRTTC member, the college will be positioning itself to become a workforce training provider to the region’s public transportation agencies.

“We have developed a proven track record of successfully initiating innovative methods and collaborative means of developing and delivering transit specific training,” said David Stumpo, SCRTTC Executive Director. “As a member, SBVC will have full access to our development teams and committee structure, including subject matter expertise.”

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As the state of California moves to more sustainable energy sources, municipal fleets and transits have often been early adopters of Alternative Fuels Vehicles (AFVs) and Electric Vehicles (EVs) in order to meet emission standards. Consequently, municipalities are often in need of AFV/EV training.

Due to the advancement of hybrid and electrical vehicle technologies and their related operational systems, various levels/complexities of electrical courses are always needed as electric vehicles become more prominent in municipalities. Read More →

Representatives from education and industry recently met with high school and college students to discuss careers in the aviation industry.

Aviation Day, held November 30 at College of Alameda’s airport training facility, was partially funded by CETI and featured speakers from United Airlines, Alaskan Airlines, Embry Riddle University, and the FAA. Nearly 90 high school students attended the event, along with a few college students and parents. Read More →

Walt Commans leads a discussion at the roundtable event for community college faculty and independent repair shop owners.

With more than 40 years of experience in the auto repair industry, Walt Commans knows a problem when he sees one.

Commans, an Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Western States Consultant and ASE Education Foundation Manager, serves as a liaison between community colleges and independent repair shop owners and saw a disconnect between the two.

“I heard over the years from the schools that they don’t know what the industry needs in terms of curriculum, and shop owners don’t feel that schools are meeting their needs in terms of what they are teaching,” he said.

The solution to this problem, Commans found, was to bring independent shop owners into community colleges earlier for informal networking events. One of those events, a roundtable discussion, was held October 28 at KARCO Specialties, an independent repair shop in Orange, California. Read More →

Larry McLaughlin, CETI Deputy Sector Navigator in the Inland Empire/Desert Region has partnered with Prime Motivation to continue a series of outreach events to generate interest and bring new information about automotive careers to local high school students.

The outreach not only speaks to high school automotive students about continuing their education at the college level, it also engages the general student population during lunch breaks in a fun, sometimes loud, car show atmosphere.

Faculty and counselors from the high school’s nearby community college are on hand to talk about the programs and how students can enroll. The overall purpose of these events is to recruit students into the participating automotive programs (high school and college level), impact enrollments, and ensure higher numbers of grads for the projected job openings in our region.

The best way to ensure that students stay on an educational pathway is to make sure that the experience is as seamless as possible from high school to college and beyond. An event held recently in the San Diego area brought stakeholders from all three groups together to begin what will become an ongoing dialogue.

The Teachers’ Automotive Summit was held December 8 at Miramar College, and was hosted by Jonathan Kropp, CETI Deputy Sector Navigator in the San Diego/Imperial Region. Nearly 40 people attended spanning high schools, colleges, and automotive businesses in the region. The event’s goal was to organize collaboration among these groups and open lines of communication for future programs. Read More →

Tully Williams talks with students at a recent college night event.

When Tully Williams visits a high school, he knows exactly how to get students interested in community college — he shows them how to follow the money.

Williams, Director of Fixed Operations at Del Grande Dealer Group (DGDG), explains how auto technicians without a college degree make around $14 per hour, while students with college degrees start around $20 per hour and go up from there to as much as $60 per hour. Read More →

October 4 & 5, 2017 Workshop

The Clean Energy and Transportation Initiative (CETI) of the California Community Colleges partnered with Stone Edge Farm to conduct a two-day workshop on microgrid applications, technologies, value, and economics.

This pilot offering was designed to demonstrate the value of providing introductory-level information and training on microgrids (and technologies that comprise them) to professionals in decision-making roles with regard to facilities development. It was also designed to test the effectiveness of materials that can now be used by college faculty to train students. Read More →