On Feb 13th, the automotive program at BC had a site visit to review standards for NATEF certification. The evaluation team of four was chaired by Andrew Cawelty.
The faculty in automotive did a fabulous job preparing responses addressing the 11 standards described in the NATEF handbook. It was interesting to me to see that one standard was specifically dedicated to e-learning and Dan Johnson explained to me that the courses use materials from the web that are current as opposed to only relying on text books. I want to recognize the faculty in the program: George Canaday, Vic Posey, Will Taylor, Dan Johnson, Darrel Shinn, and Tom Loveall and the Dean for STEM, Liz Rozell, for their dedication to the quality of our program. I also want to thank the advisory committee members who participated in the certification: Mark Waybright (Motor City GMC), Robert Northam (Eye St. Automotive), and Brint Mackey (McWilliams & Walden Automotive) for their ongoing support to our program.
Liz Rozell, Dan Johnson, Four Evaluators, Sonya Christian
NATEF evaluation visit. Feb 13, 2013
Tagged: Automotive, Bakersfield College, NATEF
After reading your blog, I felt I needed to reply specifically to the area of woodworking and construction because I have heard some rumors that the woodworking and construction classes may be eliminated. This seems to be contrary to what the President said in his state of the union address. It seems to me that these classes should be expanded rather than eliminated. I know several students that have taken the woodworking classes from Mr. Hageman. They are all now employed in great jobs related to wood working and are productive members of society. Is that not what we want? How will our students learn these important skill? Life skills, problem solving skills, as well as specific skills related to woodworking are taught in these classes. I encourage you to go visit Mr. Hageman’s classes and communicate in person with him and his students. “Wood shop” at BC is very technical. It’s not your stereotypical building bread boxes. You may find that expanding the program rather than eliminating it would be the right course to take for what is needed in Bakersfield and in view of President Obama’s speech.