Tri-County Will Partner with Hanna-Westside Extension
Campus to Offer Evening Automotive Technology Program
CONTACT: EUGENE GRANT, 646-1341
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12/12/2008
(By Lisa Garrett)
ANDERSON --- Tri-County Technical College is partnering with Anderson School District Five’s Hanna-Westside Extension Campus to offer an evening Automotive Technology program.
Plans are in the works for the College to begin offering evening classes at the Extension Campus’s auto mechanics facility, said Eugene Grant, dean of the Industrial and Engineering Technology Division at Tri-County. “If all goes well, we will begin offering classes leading toward either a certificate or an associate of applied science degree with a major in Automotive Technology in the fall of 2009,” said Grant.
“We average about 80 requests per semester for automotive classes,” said Grant. “It’s a very expensive program to start, and I knew that Hanna-Westside offered day classes to its high school students, but the facility is unused at night.” Grant met with District Five Superintendent Betty Bagley and Rick Mascaro, director of the Hanna-Westside Extension Campus earlier this year and presented the proposal. “We all agreed it would be a good use of tax dollars. If this model works, we can take the program to the other careers centers in the tri-county area,” he said.
Tri-County’s adjunct instructors would teach at the Anderson facility, and the College would upgrade equipment through grant funding, he said.
High school students already taking automotive classes at the Extension campus could enter the curriculum as second-year students, Grant said, and in addition to a certificate or degree, could earn a certification from the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation.
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Oconee