Building the Future

Team ASE Podcast

One of the advantages of attending the ASE Education Foundation Instructor Conference is meeting individuals from around the country with interesting stories about how education and industry comes together to address the need for technical talent. Some of the members of Team ASE contribute to the effort by joining Advisory Councils to help instructors tailor their CTE programs to the needs of local employers. Others go a step further and actively provide employment for students in the form of internships or apprenticeships. Still others go all in by creating learning opportunities in their communities where none previously existed.

In this episode, we talk with Tyson Sontag, a diesel technology instructor at Don Tyson School of Innovation in Springdale, Arkansas, who has an inspiring story of how one company put its full resources behind building a program to train future truck technicians in their local community. It’s a story of the kind of dedication and commitment typically found in those visionaries who build the future by investing their own talent and treasure today.

Hear all about it as we talk with Tyson about:

· How McKee Foods partnered with a local school district in Gentry, Arkansas, to create a CTE program to address their need for truck technicians.

· His time as a lead technician for McKee Foods and how it led to a career in teaching.

· The success of his first class in the new program.

· How that success led to a new $2.2 million dollar facility and resources.

· His three years as a part-time CTE instructor and full-time truck technician.

· How McKee Foods worked with his schedule to allow him to continue teaching in addition to his full-time duties.

· McKee’s return on that investment with two excellent technicians and an ongoing internship program.

· His new full-time teaching career and working toward his program accreditation with ASE.

Stay tuned for more thoughts and advice on the many facets and opportunities available through a career in the automotive service industry as we continue our Team ASE podcast series, and thanks for listening!

For more information on ASE and automotive careers, visit the website at www.ase.com