Hey look, it’s Matt Kennedy! Matt is the Methow Valley School District #350’s welding and auto tech instructor, and he just got quoted in The Seattle Times: “We need people who can build stuff and fix things.”
As described in the Seattle Times, Education Lab article, there is a local, state, and national need for tradespeople, which means we also have an urgent need for more career and technical education for high school students. The remodeled welding shop and new auto tech shop being built at Twispworks are tremendous examples of these courses being “a partnership between business or industry leaders and educators, who get together and think through an area’s economic needs.”
The article goes on to explain more about the TwispWorks and MVSD collaboration: “‘Kids really wanted that hands-on learning,’ [TwispWorks Executive Director Sarah] Brown said of the popularity of auto tech. ‘And they really wanted to learn about cars.’ When the path is fully developed, the district hopes students will be able to earn community college credit in auto tech, the same way an AP biology class can earn a student college biology credit. After high school, aspiring auto mechanics would have a head start on earning Automotive Service Excellence certification, an industry-recognized credential offered at the nearest community college, Wenatchee Valley College.”