Most of us will recall our shop classes from junior high and high school fondly. Designing, building, and problem-solving with both head and hands… There is lasting value in these learning experiences. Unfortunately, we are witnessing the demise of vocational training in our schools. One philanthropic movement aims to reverse the trend.
Experiential learning is largely being supplanted by standardized testing, which too often only rewards memorization and other basic intellectual skills. Collectors Foundation began righting the ship in 2005, and has awarded over $2.6 million to educational institutions, non-profits, and museums that use the allure of old cars and boats to provide young people with shop class experiences.
Initiated by Hagerty Collector Car and Boat Insurance, the Foundation has grown through the support of thousands of enthusiasts who want to help “Preserve the Past and Build the Future”. It has awarded grants in 29 states and three Canadian Provinces. Here are just a few of the great stories that have arisen from the movement.
Mabank High School: Mabank, Texas
Collectors Foundation awarded Mabank High School $7,500 to purchase and install a paint booth in its Career and Technical Department. The support helps to expand the school’s current restoration program and assists students in obtaining industry credentials. One of the first projects through the booth was a 1961 Willys Jeep Wagon.
Cal Poly Motor Car Assocation: San Luis Obispo, California
Founded in 2010, The Cal Poly Motor Car Association is a student club that aims to share passion for fine motor cars, establish relationships with local and national automotive entities, and explore industry career opportunities. Collectors Foundation awarded the club a $9,373 grant to assist with its “Electric Porsche Project”. Students are converting a 1977 Porsche 911 S Targa to a fully-electric powertrain, and hope to compete in both concours events, and races that feature sustainable automotive technology.
College for Creative Studies: Detroit, Michigan
As part of its mission to “Build the Future”, Collectors Foundation has awarded $100,000 in scholarships to the Transportation Design program at the College for Creative Studies. The program provides students with the intensive technical and creative training they need to thrive in the transportation industry. Career paths for students are varied, and not limited to the automotive realm. Alumni have gone on to contribute in aerospace, marine, mass transit design, and more.
Keeping vocational education accessible is essential to ensuring the skilled trades that helped build our economy continue to grow and evolve. Collectors Foundation is working hard to see that hands-on, experiential learning remains an option for future generations.
Have fun in your garage!
November 30th, 2012 at 6:03 pm
This great organization is worth considering a holiday donation to.
November 30th, 2012 at 8:56 pm
Well, I like hands on work. It needs to be done. It seems society today places little to no value on it. I don’t know any parents who want their kids to do any sort of blue collar work. A person working a blue collar job can pretty well never afford even a modest home. But, as a hobby, it is great to try and keep some of these potential lost arts alive.
December 3rd, 2012 at 9:12 am
I think it’s good to remember, too, that many of the students in these vocational programs are not on a college track. Some might not even attend school if it wasn’t for this hands-on learning. For them, trades work is their best shot at a fulfilling and productive career.
December 7th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
I am amazed!!! Bring back shop classes??? Who would have thought such an idea would find some interest? After all … when in the late 80′s, the “Nation at Risk” study came out, basically done by University level academics, the demise of teacher training programs for vocational and technology programs began to speed up …. dramatically!! My state … Washington … now has only one professor still teaching potential educators to teach in middle and high school tech programs. When that one professor retires, there will be no more such programs available in this state. Boeing used to hire so many of the graduates of the “shop” classes, both from high school and higher level schools, but no longer has that focus. As one relative of mine that is a Boeing senior engineer says, “we cannot find folk with that kind of training in Washington, so have turned to not only other states, but other countries”.
So what does our state do? Become the first state to make pot legal, and seemingly we are unaware we have a problem in education to train technically capable workers. And for those that say such training is only for hobby use .. hogwash!!! Go look at what modern machine shops, fabrication shops, and electronics repair shops do. They have a terrible time finding qualified workers, and have begun to do just as Boeing is …. going elsewhere to find who they need. We can, and must retool our high schools to begin the process of making the young aware of how many good and well paying jobs are available … IF they have the right exposure and training to get hired. As for 4 year degrees …. talk to parents who in so many cases have their degreed kids living back at home. This after getting their useless degrees which qualify them for nothing anyone will hire them to use.
A very smart and well educated professor friend of mine told me in the early 90′s that if state education programs begin to go away … which in Washington they have by truckloads …. we all will pay dearly with no jobs, no qualified employees, and schools that have little to keep kids involved. No amount of tax revenue from pot being legalized will solve this problem. Only pressure from parents and taxpayers on state legislators will bring back what is needed.
As a retired teacher in tech programs in my state, I am deeply saddened that our young people have so little available to them in the future for tech and vocational classes. Some individual school districts have kept things going, but once the supply of teachers evaporates, the programs will go right with the retiring educators … into the mist of the past.
It is time in all states for everyone to step up and make some noise. It really is truly for our kids!
December 21st, 2012 at 10:46 am
This year’s grant will provide paid and non-paid internships for up to 15 students from Mott Community College, Flint’s GASC Technology Center, and Kansas-based McPherson College. The internships will begin this summer and run through the 2011-2012 school year. Students will work on a classic 1953 Buick Skylark and other vintage vehicles in Sloan’s collection.