April 3, 2015 - Universal Technical Institute Hosts Community Breakfast for Local High School Counselors
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Over 30 high school counselors from across the Philadelphia region visit a Hot Rod lab during a campus tour. The tour was part of a recent community breakfast held at UTI’s Exton campus to introduce counselors to the school. |
Last week, Universal Technical Institute (UTI) welcomed more than 30 high school counselors from across the Philadelphia region to its Exton campus for a community breakfast.
The counselors heard presentations from a number of UTI representatives and toured the 198,000-square foot facility. They saw students working on the latest technologies and equipment, provided by more than 30 leading manufacturers with whom UTI has forged training partnerships, and learned how these top manufacturers help design UTI’s curriculum to give students current, real-world training. They watched students working under hoods and behind computer screens to evaluate and fix the many complex digital systems that keep today’s cars running and saw how UTI teaches STEM principles in practical ways that work for hands-on learners. They learned about how employers rely on UTI to train the skilled service technicians they need and learned why 88 percent of UTI graduates get jobs in their field.
The visit did more than highlight the dramatic technological advances made to cars in the last decade; it exposed the counselors to a new potential career path for their students and gave them a first-hand look at the kind of job-driven, industry focused partnerships that can lead graduates to jobs they love.
“With STEM jobs now making up 20 percent of the total job market – a number that is projected to grow exponentially over the next decade – it is important for students to be exposed to the wide array of high-tech career options available to them,” said Kevin Gero, Regional Admissions Director at UTI. “UTI-Exton’s STEM Education Breakfast helped to connect high school counselors with the tools, resources and platforms they need to better guide students in their career decision-making journey and offered sage advice for how counselors can approach career conversations with students.”
According to The American School Counselor Association, the average high school guidance counselor in Philadelphia is responsible for nearly 380 students. The maximum recommended student-to-counselor ratio is 250 to one. For these time-strapped counselors, events such as this become even more invaluable by serving as a vehicle for providing counselors with insights on in-demand STEM careers and post-secondary technical education options that can be presented to a large number of students at a time.
“Employment for transportation technicians is projected to grow exponentially over the next decade and training for these technical jobs is deeply rooted in STEM,” said Gero. “Part of our job is to relay this message to those who are helping guide our country’s younger generation to an appropriate and successful career path, so they too can understand how science, engineering and math skills are interwoven throughout the UTI curriculum.”
