Pioneer Career and Technology Center hosted an open house for all area sophomores on Thursday evening. The open house was specifically designed for sophomores to visit Pioneer and explore what the school has to offer the students.
There are 36 programs that have a wide range of possibilities for prospective students in many career fields. And they provide courses for students from 14 different schools around the area attending.
Director of Operations Gregory Nickoli explained how the programs help students be prepared to enter the career of their choice.
“Our programs have dual pathways. The students can go directly to the job or go on to college and continue their education. It is a much focused school and our staff is focused to make our students succeed,” said Nickoli.
Nickoli described some of the programs that rank highest with the students and job placements for once they graduate. “It tends to vary from year to year on the popularity of a program. We have anything and everything here. Our exercise science program, business and web design programs, automotive, manufacturing, and cosmetology are just a few of the programs that bring in a large number of students,” said Nickoli.
“We heavily work with local companies on figuring out what job skills are in demand for these careers. The companies advise us on curriculum, equipment purchases, and textbooks for the students. We have been fortunate to work with these businesses. We want to get our students headed in the right direction,” said Nickoli.
Pioneer offers four manufacturing programs including precision machining technologies, welding, industrial technician, and computer-aided drafting (CAD).
Industrial electrical technician is a new program at Pioneer. This program offers an opportunity to engineer, construct, and program vex robots, and repair heavy industrial electrical equipment and motors.
Precision machining instructor Chris Karl explained what students can achieve in this program.
“We teach them basic hands on skills and pre-engineering. The students can also receive college credit while attending. These students can finish this program and go directly out of school and find a job. About 80 percent usually have a job once they are finished. It is a very high success rate,” said Karl.
PR Machine CNC Programmer Steve Fensch went on to describe skills businesses are looking for in the students. “They need to have basic skills, they need to know blueprint reading, and math skills. We also look at their attendance.
“There is a high demand for these jobs and right now there is a shortage, but with going to this type of school, it really will help the students find a job straight out of high school. They can make anywhere from $14-16 an hour. The sky is the limit for them,” said Fensch.
Gorman-Rupp Plant Manager Brandon Hall noted that businesses want to make sure their future employees are employable. “We look at attendance, attitude, and productivity. We need to make sure that we are matching the skills with the jobs. These students do have an edge on the competition because of a program like this,” said Hall.
Masonry is a program that has gone through some adjustments at Pioneer. Nickoli explained that last year the program did not exist.
“We noticed our numbers had been declining in masonry and we thought it was because there wasn’t a high demand for jobs in that field. We spoke with businesses and learned that the demand was high for these jobs and they needed workers with the right skills. So, this year masonry is back,” said Nickoli.
Meat processing, collision repair, power equipment mechanics, carpentry, and cosmetology are just a few of the programs that offer customer service.
Meat processing is a program designed for students to experience careers in a wide range of possibilities. Meat processing instructor Bill Kucic revealed that this year he has more female than male students in his class. He has a total of 13 students this year.
“These students can go into a career with meat cutting in grocery stores or become meat managers. They could also become meat inspectors or go into meat sales. The possibilities are really endless,” said Kucic.
Junior Alexis Manning shared that she wants to go into the agricultural field once she completes school. “I want to go on to the ATI College in Wooster and continue with my education,” said Manning. Manning’s classmate junior Julia Heifner wants to follow the same path as Manning. “We both want to go on to college once we are finished here,” said Heifner.
Collision repair instructor Paul Brown shared that the program does a variety of customer work throughout the year. “We work on cars and practice paint jobs through computer programs. We work a lot with repairing a car after a wreck,” said Brown. Brown has 19 students in the program.
Power equipment mechanics instructor Rick Harvey explained that the program offers repairs, services, and maintenance on lawn and recreational equipment. “We do about 300-375 customer requests a year and that is just average. Some years we do a great deal more,” said Harvey.
Harvey explained that students from the program can go directly out of high school and find quality paying jobs in many areas. “On average, these kids could be starting out making between $12-13 an hour,” said Harvey.
And Carpentry instructor Doug Zimmerman said his students work on building a mini-house, while also learning valuable employable skills. “We want to make sure that these students have the knowledge in the field, but also have employable skills that will carry with them through their career,” said Zimmerman.
Another competitive program is Exercise science and Sports Medicine.
“We usually have 40-55 students apply and we accept 25. In this program we do a lot of hands on work, but it also has a very rigorous academic standard. Pioneer really is a great place for students to learn basic skills for their future careers,” said Exercise science and sports medicine instructor Mike Millward.
“Our programs have dual pathways. The students can go directly to the job or go on to college and continue their education. It is a much focused school and our staff is focused to make our students succeed,” said Gregory Nickoli.
