Field Trip to the Future for Ballou Tech Students
Halfway through a ten week pre-apprentice course at Ballou High School, sponsored by the Districts Department of Employment Services (DOES) and supported by WANADA for the past nine years, 20 adult students in two groups participated in a real world field trip to DARCARS Chrysler-Jeep in Marlow Heights, where they got a good look at the opportunities available to them in their future dealership careers.
The tour was led by DARCARS Service Manager Bill Amos, a longtime participant in WANADA technician training, who took the time to show the students all dealership operations, from the showroom to the parts, body and service departments. The students asked a lot of questions about how the business operations were run, what training is offered, how much money they could make, said Mr. Amos. Those are the qualities we are looking for, he said.
To drive the point home that these are real career opportunities, the group also met with Bernard Chiss, a 2006 graduate of Ballou and a successful ADEI trainee now working as a technician at DARCARS Chrysler-Jeep.
Qualified completers of this program are eligible for WANADAs Automobile Dealer Education Institutes (ADEI) technician training program at Montgomery College or Northern Virginia Community College.
For more information about growing your own techs through WANADAs training program, contact Bill Belew at WANADA, (202) 237-7200 or bb@wanada.org.
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