Lawrenceville, IL — Dec 16, 2008 — A local group plans to open a vocational training center this fall in Lawrence County. Two buildings have been purchased and one million dollars pledged to the private, not-for–profit facility. But does it make sense to purchase buildings and dedicate more than a million dollars to such a project in tough economic times?

“When times are good, every person should have marketable skills to work with,” said Lloyd Peterson the general manager of the project. “When times are bad, every person MUST have marketable skills.”

Peterson, a retired vocational educator, believes that vocational training is the best way to fight unemployment and underemployment—especially during a recession like the one this nation is experiencing now. “We will probably attract non-traditional students,” Peterson said, such as veterans, workers in low paying jobs, and people looking to change careers.”

We plan to offer students the opportunity to train for careers in several areas, including Auto Technology, Computer Services and Networking, Geographic Information Services, Health Care, Culinary Arts, Pre Engineering and more.

Our approach to training will be very different from many vocational schools. For example: The Auto Tech. trainees will be committed to 40 hours per week and their training will be finished in 9-12 months. To accomplish this, the school will have a virtual computer lab dedicated to auto training. The students will receive their Basic Automotive Training using 20 or more computerized modules in the Auto Lab and 8-10 working component modules depicting the primary areas of the auto such as steering and suspension, air conditioning, automatic transmissions and more. The students will then move to the Live Work Area to practice what they know on shop-owned cars and trucks. Using the Auto Lab, students would be able to proceed at their own speed in the study areas that are available.

There will be 20 different virtual, instructional pods with 2000+ hours of training in 8 or 10 of the Automotive Service Excellence (A.S.E.) certification areas. Students will have training material for each of the A.S.E. task areas and the Auto Lab instructor will have their progress recorded on his master computer.

Recognizing that students need practical, hands-on live-training, each student will spend 8 hours per week in an operating automotive dealership or independent repair facility doing the service work in a live-work situation.

Upon completion of the Auto Training (9-12 months), the student should be qualified to take the A.S.E. Certification tests. Full certification would require a year of working in a dealership or other service facility.

The other programs offered by our VOTEC CENTER would be organized in a similar fashion. The advantage of this design is that the students would be able to finish their training quickly and be gainfully employed in a satisfying career very soon.

In the Auto Technology Area we will be able to hold evening seminars for our students and people already working in the field who want to get advanced training. The seminars could include such things as, Performance Automatic Transmissions, Mobile Air Conditioning, Chassis and Suspensions, Fuel Injection and Engine Performance and Hybrid Automotive Service Procedures.

Projected start date would be August or September 2009. The first class to start would be Auto Technology and possibly Geographic Information Technology.

For more information:
Contact, Lloyd “Pete” Peterson 812-899-5497 frostypete5961@sbcglobal.net