November 13, 2023, 12:30-2 p.m.
Meeting Place
W1171
Chair
Jeff Gardner
Attendees
Members in Attendance
Dan Smith, Roland Machinery; Rob Garlish, Martin Equipment; Joe Horn, Altorfer CAT; J. DeRosear, CIT Trucks; Nick Kuntz, Rush Truck Centers; Craig Wynne, Sloan Implement; Terry Albrecht, Sievers Equipment Co; Neil Auchmuty, CNH Industrial; Logan Kelling, CNH Industrial; LLCC: Nancy Sweet, Kody Letterle, Damon Tanke, Brian Earley, Karen Sanders, Jason Dockter, Doug Hoy, Laurenn York, Barbara Messner
Members Absent
N/A
Guests
N/A
Agenda
- Student Introductions and Lab Tour
- Introduce Kody
- Advisory Council Purpose/Goals
- Curriculum Overview
- Contextualized Gen Ed. Courses
- Internship Opportunities
- Recruiting Strategies
- Final Thoughts
Minutes
1. Student Introductions and Lab Tour
The PAC meeting began in W1171 with introductions and continued with a tour of the Diesel lab and an introduction to current DET students. As the group returned to the room, Jeff welcomed everyone and encouraged them to get food which was catered by LLCC culinary students.
2. Introduce Kody
Kody Letterle is a graduate of LLCC and SIU. Previously he worked at Bob Ridings in Taylorville and at Cummins more recently on the tech hotline for catastrophic repairs, in Value Package Introduction and then for the last four years as a technical training developer, writing curriculum and training the trainers. He is now a full-time faculty member for DET.
3. Advisory Council Purpose
The PAC is made up of members from each of the three diesel industries: Ag manufacturing, construction, and truck. Jeff thanked the members for their participation and feedback over the past two years in building the program. We have a good group of students who started in the first class this fall. Everyone who started is still in the program; we are working on their communication skills. There is a shortage of techs across the industry, but students mostly stay within 100 miles of home. Therefore, we have to grow and place our students locally. We are trying to gear our program toward industry which benefits everyone. We have already made changes based on PAC feedback, so please continue to advise us on curriculum, our own training, trends (electric, etc.), internships, and any deficiencies our students have.
4. Curriculum Overview
Jeff talked the PAC through the DET curriculum and asked for feedback on anything that doesn’t make sense, that might be missing, or for any questions that anyone might have. The first-year classes are 16 weeks long and are technical classes with the exception of English which will be discussed later. During the second year, classes are 8 weeks long; the first 8 weeks are classes, and the 2nd 8 weeks are internships—for both semesters. Internships will be secured over the summer. Students will intern with the same company both semesters. The first internship will get them acclimated and after the second internship they should be ready to go get a job. General education classes are spread over both years so that students can always be in DET technical classes and not solely taking gen eds. The electrical course includes theory and students are doing industry online training (outside of class) throughout the program as well. DET 206 Hydraulic System Diagnosis and Repair covers system diagnostics in the 5th semester. Hydraulics is included in several classes, but diagnostics is toward the end for the sake of familiarity. The first semester is foundations, and the second semester is truck chassis and brakes because industry typically starts interns on brakes and wheel seals. The welding class is contextualized for the diesel industry. We toured industry to see what equipment was being used and what was being welded and then designed the class. The engine class includes MSHA training and includes training on different types of industry engines. Students have to take the whole program all the way through in order. The more experiences they get, the better. 25% of our students know where they want to work; most have no idea about the diesel industry, we’re trying to teach that as well.
The discussion continued with more questions from the PAC. Students will be AP609 certified upon completion of DET 105 Air Conditioning Systems. It is not possible for students to take their internship courses in the summer; instead, we encourage part time work. It’s nice when students can partner with a company—when a student gets paid from the company and can work part time. Students have also asked for more learning: Ag mechanics, precision farming, GPS controls, etc. This is a growing side of diesel, and this is an area where industry can help us. This is not the strongest part of the program. Maybe we could partner with companies that have full-time trainers. However, not many students are interested in going back to the family farm at this point. There are 4-year degrees in precision farming and LLCC has a degree in it, but it’s centered on operation and not repair. For Case, the salesman also has to know repair. A couple of PAC members with feedback on better ways to do precision farming (what do we need to teach, objectives, etc.) will contact Jeff through email with their input. DET 205 Ag/Construction Power Trains covers transmissions, hydro stats, etc. Truck is its own separate course. Our students will be participating in SkillsUSA. It is a requirement for all of our diesel students.
5. Contextualized Gen Ed. Courses
Laurenn York presented the EGL 103 Technical and Professional Communication I course to the PAC and explained the rationale behind contextualized general education courses. It is an 8-week class. It is helpful to teach it in conjunction with the Career Expo because students were immediately able to apply what they were learning in a professional setting. Laurenn asked for feedback and the PAC shared that training with field service reports would be helpful. These may be used later for warranties, so it is important that employees complete them in a very detailed, intelligible manner. It would also be helpful to teach students interview skills; knowing the right questions to ask a customer is vital. This may become part of EGL 106 which focuses more on spoken communication. Jeff and Laurenn work together to help students succeed. A couple of PAC members asked Laurenn if she would be willing to do training for their employees. LLCC is interested in partnership with industry; we can help with trainings and be flexible with how they are conducted.
6. Internship Opportunities
Jeff went through the Internship Procedures handout. He will also email this information and include information on participating in Handshake. He asked that anyone interested in participating and giving feedback email him. The process includes the following steps: 1) find location, the student much research options, 2) tweaking resume and cover letter, 3) contact dealer to set up interview, Jeff may try and work to partner students with a good location, 4) if dealer approves then sign contract (input needed—what should be in the contract?), 5) instructor will make 2-3 visits, there will be an evaluation form and a couple of surveys. The evaluation is of the student, but it helps us in the evaluation of our program as well. Industry thought that either an online survey or a paper survey would be fine to use. Some would like to access it online ahead of time and then do a face to face evaluation with the student. Some companies do a 30, 60, 90 day evaluation/productivity measurement which can feed into this. It is important for students to have a face to face conversation with industry during the internship. The typical instructor visit will be 30 minutes long. Please get any job openings that you have to us.
7. Recruiting Strategies
Currently, our department recruiter visits high schools. Jeff does some targeted visits to FFA and career fairs. It seems that the trend in high schools is to push students into trades that they don’t know what to do with. But we need STEM students as well—how do we get the best students? Go into local schools, hold open interviews, exposure to high schoolers is key, SkillsUSA, attend high school career fairs. PAC members agreed that it would be beneficial to partner together on developing a social media presence. We would like to tie LLCC to industry at the high school. When students think of LLCC they think of Roland and Martin, etc. Industry needs to partner with each other as we support LLCC and the students; this benefits everyone and highlights job opportunities. When our students see people who have moved up, this helps. Some students are taking automotive classes first and then are starting the diesel program. There is a lot of job hopping in industry; we have to learn to deal with the workforce we have. We can share marketing and recruiting with industry. If we can co-brand then we would pass out flyers and take them to high school career fairs, etc. We need to cover all areas—rural, cities and inner city areas.
8. Final Thoughts
As the meeting concluded, the PAC affirmed Jeff for creating a quality program. The PAC will meet approximately every six months. Members were invited to stay and network and spend more time in the lab if desired.
Action items
Topic for next meeting: what/how to pay interns. Assigned to Jeff. Due spring 2024.