Tucson Unified School District
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Santa Rita High School's Automotive Program Certified by National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Chyrl Lander, (520) 225-6437, chyrl.lander@tusd1.org
Posted on: July 17, 2008
Santa Rita High School's automotive program has been certified by the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF), making it one of the four high school programs in the city with the certification.
Tucson Unified's Cholla Magnet and Rincon high schools, as well as Flowing Wells High School have the certification. In the Phoenix area, the automotive programs of Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology and East Valley Institute of Technology also are certified.
"TUSD has 50 percent of the schools certified in the state," said Brian Forstall, Tucson Unified's industrial technology coordinator for Career and Technical Education (CTE). We're putting a package together for Sahuaro and we're doing a re-certification for Palo Verde," he added.
NATEF is headquartered in Leesburg, Va. The foundation's national certification signals that students have:
- A thorough knowledge of automotive systems and components;
- good computer skills;
- excellent communication skills;
- above average mechanical aptitude;
- good reasoning ability;
- the ability to read and follow instructions; and,
- manual dexterity.
Bob Saul is the automotive instructor at Santa Rita, at 3951 S. Pantano Road. The school was notified of the certification last month. There were approximately 160 students enrolled in Santa Rita's program last year. Graduates of the three-year program are prepared for jobs as automotive technicians.
The automotive vocational program is supported by Tucson's franchise dealers and independent garages, said Forstall. In their junior years, students job-shadow in garages or at dealerships, working for free for one or two hours a day, four or five days a week. After job-shadowing, students graduate to full-time, paid internships the summer before their senior years.
"Most seniors go to school in the morning and work at a dealership in the afternoon," Forstall added.
When school begins in August, Forstall said there will be 50 students on scholarship in the automotive industry, going to school part-time at Pima Community College and working full time.
All programs are Joint Technology Education District-level programs. "TUSD is taking the lead in putting the JTED programs together," said Forstall.
Acquiring certification is a two-year process that can cost more than $50,000. "JTED funding helped us get certification for Santa Rita," Forstall said, explaining that schools must have the tools necessary to offer a complete curriculum. "The infrastructure in the classroom can be rather expense; a lift can be $20,000."
Forstall said all equipment is technology-based so students must know how to program car computers. "When you finish the program you're not an "automotive mechanic, you're an automotive technician," he said.
For more information, call TUSD Communications & Media Relations at 225-6437; or Forstall at 603-0549.