Northwest Technical School expands its opportunities
CHRIS ROUSH/DAILY FORUM
Northwest Technical School automotive technology instructor Steve Holtman and collision repair instructor Ron Wiederholt presented a safety tool training session Tuesday morning for their students with the help of an industry representative, Snap-On.
With the new school year underway, Northwest Technical School is offering a few new opportunities for its students.
“Area high schools are continuously looking for opportunities for their students,” NTS Director Jeremy Ingraham said. “Sometimes the student needs the credits to come here in the morning, but in the afternoon, the students only need a few credits back at their school, so they don’t need to be there the whole time. We’ve been working with the schools to try and get students real-world experience.”
NTS is offering expanded career path opportunities for the 14 area schools in Andrew, Atchison, Holt, Nodaway and Worth counties that are part of NTS’ consortium.
At NTS, students attend a three-hour block of schooling either in the morning or afternoon depending on the agreement with each high school and NTS.
In all of the programs offered, a student with enough high school credits may participate in a technical school program of their choice and then intern in the morning or afternoon with an aligned business to learn more about that career field.
“We started asking our area business partners,” Ingraham said. “We had advisory committees and we asked them if it would be possible to place these students in the morning or afternoon depending on which program the student is in. It’s come from meeting the needs of our area schools and their students.”
In the past year, the Health Science program alone has expanded opportunities to include physical therapy, dental hygiene, and veterinary tech. Ingraham said these career pathways allow students to intern with local health care related partners the second semester of their senior year.
“We have to monitor hours,” Ingraham said. “We also have to work with the employers to see how the students are doing. The students have a rubric they have to follow and we check that weekly. It’s how they get a grade while interning and receive credit toward graduating.”
Along with the Health Science program, students in the Automotive Technology program may attend the morning session and then with enough credits obtained at their high school, they can then intern with a local business such as Northwest Implement as part of the internship program agreement.
Ingraham said that the school has partners in any health care related field including dental offices and veterinarian offices. The school also partners with manufacturing businesses in town, as well as welding and fabrication businesses.
Although the program opens up new opportunities for students, Ingraham said that not every student would be able to participate in the program.
“It’s tough for students to get into this because they’ve had to already obtain all of their credits through high school,” Ingraham said. “It’s not easy to get through high school, there are more credit requirements now than there were 10 years ago. A student has to take more English and science classes, but as long as a student passes all of their classes throughout high school, then that last semester, some students are available to intern.”
Ingraham said that along with the internship program, the school is always looking for ways to help students succeed. He said that the school looks for opportunities through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“These opportunities are a great way for our area students to truly get a feel for their chosen career path both in our lab settings and in the real world setting of an area business,” Ingraham said.”
