Stage 2: Exploratory Research — Visit to Rosedale Technical College
2/6–10/12
We had the opportunity to visit Rosedale Technical College(RTC), situated in Pittsburgh. The college offers Diploma courses in automotive, diesel, welding and electrical, as well as Degree programs in automotive, diesel, collision repair and industrial technician. It even conducts 10week courses in truck driving.
Dave, RTC’s Director of Admissions, started off by giving us an overview of RTC, some of the degree and diploma programs they offer, background of their students and the challenges they face.
Overall Program Details
- Degrees cost $30,000 and run for 16 months while diplomas cost $20,000 and last 18 months although this varies slightly from course to course. For example, the truck driving diploma lasts 10 weeks.
- Toolkit costs around $3,500
- Class sizes are around 20 students per class, maybe smaller for diplomas
- New classes start every 8 weeks to give students the opportunity to join throughout the year as well as ensure that class sizes are kept manageable and accommodate hands-on learning.
- Classes are typically 70% hands-on and 30% theory
Where Do Their Students Come From
- Dave told us that majority of the students are either from high school or adults returning to school to retrain or pick up new skills (with ages ranging anywhere from 25 to 55 years).
- Some of RTI’s students consist of works that qualify for retraining under the Trade Act. The Act provides support and skills development opportunities for workers who are left unemployed when a factory closes down or moves overseas.
- Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits: trade readjustment allowances in addition to regular unemployment insurance for all workers concurrently enrolled only in full-time training and supplementary wages for workers age 50 and over, and earning less than $50,000 per year in reemployment.
- Dave talked about how RTI is a very selective school with a rigorous application process (including aptitude tests and interviews) before students are admitted to the programs. This is designed to ensure a high competition rate amongst students that join. He said that some students (especially returning adults) don’t realize the impact going back to school might have on their lives with regards to finances, family, time, etc.
- RTI works closely with students to help them with financial aid.
Trade School Trends
- As a result of Pittsburgh’s oil and gas industry, RTI receives a lot of students studying diesel. This has especially gone up in the last 5 years.
- Welding is also a popular program due to the work being done on Pittsburgh’s pipelines.
- Enrollment in their automotive program has been pretty steady over the years are there is always a need for cars and therefore car technicians.
Challenges
- Students struggle with life in general — especially older adults with kids and families.
- This tends to impact their attendance. Attendance is critical due to the hands-on component of the course. Once students miss a few classes, it’s very difficult for them to catch up.
“Today’s cars are crazy, if you don’t know the (technical) side of things, it really puts you behind”. — Dave
Vaughan Greil, Lead Truck Driving Instructor at RTC
Vaughan has been a driver for 23 years, with over 2.5 million miles driven. He used to work for UPS but quit because he was getting tired of the profession. That is when he decided to give back to the truck driving community and industry by becoming a teacher.
- The driver training school he had gone to, did not emphasis on teaching students how to drive well. They only prepared them to take the state exam so that they could get their driver’s license.
- When he became a professor, he came with a vision and philosophy to change the driving industry and to make it safer. Safer trucks lead to safer drivers and vice versa.
“Safer trucks, and safer drivers… this is what it’s all about.”
About the Class He Teaches
- His class is a required class for students coming for the truck driving course. The course is 10 weeks long and is one of the more sought after courses by students. He also teaches the Degree and Diploma courses in Automotive.
- Some of the students that come to take his course are fresh out of High School. He also gets many students aged between 25–55, who come to learn a new trade, or to advance their current careers.
- He teaches student in areas of preventive maintenance, vehicle systems, driving operations, safety and driving skills.
- Vaughan was one of the professors who vouched to bring in the truck driving simulator — this simulator has the ability to recreate real world instances and environments that help students get better prepared.
Some of the features of the simulator are:
- Options on the different kinds of trucks that you can ride. — all brands and makes, from a 6 feet long truck to a 40 feet long truck.
- Recreate environments — you can choose environment obstacles such as extreme weather like snow, rain, hail and heat.It even puts in obstacles on the way, such as a human crossing, an animal running across the road.
- Recreate road conditions — narrow lanes, tight curves, potholes, concrete roads, uphill/downhill.
- Select courses — driving through a city, highway, freeway, dessert, etc.
- The simulator records all the tactile feedback from the way the student is driving on these conditions, and can generate a report card which informs the faculty about the students driving habits. This comes in as helpful information as students can learn where they are driving wrong, for example if they are hitting the clutch too hard, or speeding on tight curves, if they are braking too soon, etc.
“ In the past, no one had this kind of technology — we just learned how to give the state exam, but to be able to learn safer driving is what makes the roads better ”
Vaughan has started taking executive courses for truck driving in collaborations with corporate companies and industries.
- Theses companies send their drivers for safety training or even to learn driving on newer truck models. He currently has ties with a construction company who are sending 63 of their drivers for training and a pavement company who are sending around 30 drivers for training.
- One of the reasons Vaughan believes the simulator and the executive course is essential for truck driver training is that it teaches drivers that they can become better not just for their own sake, but also for the sake of their company.
- By learning how to drive better, they are able to save fuel and maintenance costs for the company. This money can be used to invest in better trucks or even as promotion money for the drivers.
“ Teaching a driver that they are worth more to their company, really pushes them to do better (driving) ”
Paul Danner, Automotive Instructor
Paul Danner, an Instructor at RTC is also an alum of the RTC in the Automotive Technology and Diesel Program in 1993.
Paul has been working in the Automotive Field for the past 20 years and joined RTI as an Instructor in 2000. Paul still works part time in the field doing mobile diagnostics for various garages.
He teaches Engine Performance Diagnostics since the past 17 years. He even published a textbook and started his own youtube channel on automotive repair. He has over 85000 followers that follow his youtube channel and his website - scannerdanner.com - where he has video chapters on automotive repair and a forum for discussion.
Teaching Methods
- When Paul began as an instructor, he used the very basics for prepare and teach — pen/pencil, notebooks and a whiteboard. As the years went by, he upgraded his teaching methods with the pace of technology. He bought his first laptop in 2004, and then proceeded to acquire technology products that help him teach better, such as a smart touch whiteboard, a tablet that connects to the cars software system, a digital camera for video recording.
- He has a car always present in his classroom. He uses SMART tech to link the cars software with his tablet. From his tablet he can control various functions of the car and demonstrate it to the students.
- The tablet is also linked to his SMART whiteboard — where he can project the interface of the car’s software, and use it as a touchpad for demonstrations.
- He has at-least two laptops present in his class at all times. He links both of them to his SMART whiteboard to show the students his notes, presentations and videos.
Self-driven Ventures
- Based on his experience on the field and teaching, he published a notebook on technical training — “Engine Performance Diagnostics”.
- Apart from teaching, Paul would take up car technical repair consultancy jobs. He started video recording these car fixes to show his students real-life case studies. He began a youtube channel and started posting these videos so that anyone could learn from them.
- Soon, he gathered a large number of followers who would email him with car troubleshooting queries. He now has a large global online network who talk and learn about car technical repair.
- He has started training people remotely. With the help of technology, Paul is living in the age of “Global Mentality” and he believes that in the future, education and teaching methods are going to change drastically.
The information age is changing the education space completely.” — Paul
Challenges
- Some students in the class feel intimidated with the technology that Paul uses to teach. They are also uncomfortable with using the car softwares, preferring to acquire old fashioned mechanical skills.
- The online students show more passion about his courses since it puts everything together. Besides, self-guided lectures are more suitable for self-driven students.
“I have to reverse engineer what the engineer did to troubleshoot it.” -Paul
- Keeping up to date with current technology in cars is challenging. Paul attends various seminars and workshops that introduce new car tech. But he needs hands on experience in fixing them to truly understand them and be able to teach it back.
“I need to see a car that doesn’t start, one that I’ve never seen before. Then, I need to get my hands into it.” -Paul
