Grant funds OCCC auto tech program
A new program at Oklahoma City Community College is preparing students to earn their associate degree in the automotive field while working full time.
The program — launched with a $500,000 grant from JPMorgan Chase & Co. — will change lives, said David Page, vice chairman and managing director of Oklahoma J.P. Morgan Chase.
In Oklahoma, 32 percent of workers are paid wages so low they live in poverty, Page said Thursday at workforce development forum at OCCC.
“People without the right skills and the right education are left behind,” he said.
Page said the company chose to invest in the new OCCC program because the job market for certified automotive technicians is growing faster in Oklahoma than anywhere in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“This public-private partnership provides students with an in-demand career path for high-skill, high-wage jobs,” Gov. Mary Fallin said at the forum.
“I hope there will be many others like it,” Fallin said. “Statewide we need to continue to make sure we’re aligning degrees with workforce needs.”
The first 12 students in the new Honda Professional Automotive Career Training (PACT) program are completing their first year and are expected to graduate next spring.
When they do, they will have completed 75 percent of the training to become a Honda master technician, along with all their general education requirements.
“They’ll be ready to hit the ground running,” said David Brunette, service manager at Eskridge Honda.
New graduates can earn $35,000 to $40,000 annually, while master technicians can earn $100,000, Brunette said.
Lydia Means, 18, of Moore — on track to be the first female graduate of PACT nationwide — called the program “an amazing opportunity.”
Means started working on cars with her dad when she was 13. She was doing oil changes and tire rotations at Eskridge Honda when she learned about the program.
“I really wanted to excel. I still wanted to learn more,” Means said.
Brunette said Means will have opportunities to advance in the company with her Honda training and associate degree.
“I think can do anything she wants to do,” he said.
John Leeper, 30, also loved working on cars as a teen in Kansas. He was working at an Oklahoma City transmission shop when he heard about the PACT program. He enrolled and went to work at Bob Howard Honda.
“There’s a lot of technology in vehicles today,” Leeper said.
Technicians need to understand all the codes and computer data involved in diagnosing what’s going on with a vehicle, he said.
OCCC President Jerry Steward first talked with Honda about establishing a regional automotive technology program a couple of years ago but didn’t know how the college could pay for it.
“The startup costs of the program were very high at a time when we were experiencing dramatic funding cuts from the state,” Steward said.
The grant from JPMorgan Chase paid for the equipment, tools, faculty training and initial salaries to get the program started, he said.