Recently, over 700 high school students from dozens of cities and towns traveled to Manchester to review and explore degree-based automotive technology programs throughout the Community College System of New Hampshire.
This year, automotive community college instructors teamed up with our members and manufacturer representatives to showcase their automotive programs and their specific employment opportunities.
“We have every tool at our disposal to recruit and train students to join the lucrative and evolving industry; what we need are the people,” explained Dan Bennett, President of NHADA. Auto shops and dealers all over our state are hiring right now. This Career Day hopefully attracted some new faces and put several on a path to a career in our field.”
In addition to our attending member businesses and the NH DMV and State Police, this year's event included "featured guests". The guests consisted of technicians and business owners from the industry who boasted not only their career success but also some pretty exciting hobbies.
This showed the students some of the Off The Clock lifestyles you could lead by entering the automotive industry.
Featured Guests included:
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Motorcycle Technician Colby Goyner from Manchester Harley-Davidson displayed his stunt-riding bikes.
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Grappone Ford Diesel Senior Master Technician Josh Schofield (a Ford Asset Graduate) displayed his pull truck.
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Grappone Honda Master Technician Andrew Lavalley displayed his Honda S2000 race car
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Powersports technician Matt St. Laurent from Souhegan Valley Motorsports displayed his racing dirtbike
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Owner of Ron’s Toy Shop Brad Fornier (GM Asep Graduate) displayed his T-bucket hot rod
This gave students an opportunity to inquire for more information, or in some cases even enroll into a college program on the spot! Dealer and manufacturer reps also provided industry-leading vehicles for display in each category.
Billy Haines (Nissan Technician Satisfaction & Retention Consultant) also gave a motivational presentation about his career path and working in the industry.
Career conversations were accompanied by the sound of the engines and sound systems of all the display vehicles, which further engaged the students in potential automotive career choices.
This event was an extraordinary opportunity for high school students to explore high-tech, high wage careers in the motor vehicle industry.
A special thanks to all our educational partners and members who helped make this day a great success! We can't wait to do it again next year!
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