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The Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, WI has been around for over 100 years, operating under its current name for the past 35 years, so it knows a little bit about keeping up with the times. We sat down with Shawn, Kelsey, Brad, and Iain to talk a little bit about the history of this amazing technical school, and a lot about their automotive program. We are All About the Car, after all!

 

 

Kelsey gave us some background on NTC, which started as a small building in downtown Wausau. They serve all or parts of ten counties in central Wisconsin, with the main campus in Wausau and regional campuses throughout their district in Phillips, Medford, Spencer, Wittenberg and Antigo. While they’ve served these communities for a long time, they always make sure to base any expansion on community need. For example, she said that as of our recording NTC is undergoing an expansion in the Antigo community to support wood science. They even have a sawmill!

As a community college, they strive to meet learners where they are and take them where they want to go. That means they offer everything from community classes to enrich people's lives (such as cooking classes, dance classes or CPR classes that anyone in the community can take) all the way up to short term credentialing, apprenticeship, and two-year associate degrees.

Due to such a wide variety of classes and learning opportunities for everyone from casual learners to students who are setting the groundwork for a lifetime career, they serve thousands of learners every year. They can provide OSHA training, specific leadership development training, contract training, and almost anything else a growing business, business owner, or employee would need.

To make education more accessible to the communities they serve, NTC started working on ways to bring their programming to their students. They realized that some of their students have full time jobs or care for families and children, so having as much material available online as possible was already underway when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. They were already heading toward 100% online availability where it was feasible, so they had a running start. Of course, some programs have hands-on elements that need to be completed in person at a particular campus, but where it’s possible, an online solution is available.

Even if a class requires hands-on workshops, NTC offers night classes and open labs to accommodate as many different schedules as possible. This isn’t just to help out people who are considered “not-traditional” students like adults with families and full time jobs who are going back to school to advance their skills. The flexible scheduling also helps younger students who are taking dual-credit or college-level courses while they’re in high school or starting an apprentice program with a local company.

Speaking of continuing education, NTC partners with the University of Wisconsin to help provide a way for students to begin their education with the technical knowledge at NTC and continue to expand and specialize in the UW environment. It’s a great way to offer not just a quality education, but a plan to continue that education in whatever direction the student needs to go.

Since we are slightly car-focused, Rob asked what sort of opportunities NTC has for people interested in a career in the automotive industry. Iain, the Dean of the School of Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing at NTC, filled us in. He said NTC has 2-year programs for things like an automotive technology associate degree or a diesel technology associate degree. As part of those two programs they also offer a couple of technical diplomas. For people who want to dig into engines, they offer a diesel equipment mechanic technical diploma. If someone is more interested in body work, NTC partners with the Wisconsin Automotive and Truck Education Alliance to offer an auto collision fundamentals certification. They even have a commercial driving license program so people who want to get into transportation can get their CDL.

However, depending on how different high schools approach their automotive education programs, NTC will typically see two types of student: one who has decided to continue their education right after high school to prepare for a career, and one who gets a job right out of high school and decides to come back to school to up their educational credentials. NTC has to find a way to make classes accessible to these (and other) types of student so everyone gets a solid education regardless of their availability or schedule.

NTC is also working on a Transportation 4.0 initiative. This is a program that will help address all the technology packed into modern cars, from sensors to cameras to all the computerized subsystems that control emissions, gas/oil mixtures, and more. Bryan mentioned that the upside to all this extra technology is that cars last a lot longer. “Back when I first got in the industry, 100,000 miles in the car was junk. It was done. Now it's barely broke in. So the repairs and keeping them up is ultra important.”

A lot of what NTC offers is a broad knowledge base coupled with a solid base of problem solving. They teach not just how to fix something, but how things work. Once a student understands the fundamentals of how a mechanical or computer system works, they are better able to approach a situation they’ve never seen before, jump in, and figure it out. When you understand the basics, you have the framework you need to start troubleshooting any issue.

Iain said that critical thinking is important – no matter if students are taking automotive classes or childcare classes. “We don't want to end up in a situation where we're like, hey, the computer tells us this. It’s like, well, great, but why? You want to have someone there who can say, well, if you think of it, this is what the problem is, and this is why the computer's telling us that's the problem.”

The biggest challenge for students is that real life is a little bit different from being in school. There can be a striking difference between a school environment and an active shop. Even with that transitional period, 9 out of 10 students already have a job lined up within the first semester. That’s why NTC is implementing a shop experience class!

Two days a week students can either work in an industrial or automotive shop, where they do jobs for employees and students. This is real life shop experience, no different than any other repair shop or service center. It gives students an opportunity not just to see what the normal day-to-day is like for a retail or industrial shop, it gives them early insight into how good a fit that kind of work is for them.

Making sure students find the right career path is a huge focus of NTC’s programs. They usually start with 16-20 students in the first year, and then that attendance drops to 9 or 10 students. Much of this is due to students finding jobs right away, which is a large reason NTC offers the 1-year technical diploma and such a flexible schedule. Students don’t want to pass on a good employment opportunity, but once on the job, they might feel that it would help to go back to school and finish their degree.

“We fully support that,” Iain said. “But again, that's why we are trying to adapt our program to address that and say, great, you've left after a year, you have a technical diploma. Industry, please send them back! They can work for you. Then they can come to school the rest of the time.”

Bryan mentioned that there is a tremendous need for techs in automotive and industrial vehicle careers, so it’s important to strike that balance between a well-rounded education, hand-on experience, and active employees.

The students are able to use the NTC facilities to do any sort of repair, typically just basic or intermediate work on light vehicles. “They do some work on light trucks,” Iain said, “but heavy trucks, there's more of the diesel program. They get to work on breaks. They get to work on alignment, they do transmissions - which has been an interesting discussion on whether we need to teach students all about rebuild. We want to try and give them enough basic foundational knowledge that they're capable.”

On top of teaching current skills, NTC is constantly keeping up with new developments in engine technology. Their fully-equipped diesel shop has a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered truck for students to work on, and Shawn mentioned he actually has a Honda Civic that runs on CNG.

So NTC is in the unenviable position of educating a whole new wave of auto and industrial techs in a wide variety of systems. The landscape has already changed. “I'm not saying electrical cars are not the future,” Iain said. “They're here already. We have to be able to service them and use them.” But other technologies are in development, and we will need people with the knowledge and experience to maintain them.

Practical experience in the field is exceptionally valuable. NTC partners with a number of companies and organizations to offer an apprenticeship program for a solid balance of education and real-world experience. Their Diesel Technology Apprenticeship is the first of its kind in the nation, and they are constantly working with state and community organizations to set up new programs with industry partners to give students the opportunity to pursue and apprenticeship in the exact field they are interested in.

“What we're looking at,” Brad said, “is getting that workforce out to the employers as quickly as possible. So, for example, the diesel apprenticeship: they're in school one day a week, on the job four days a week, getting those hands-on skills, getting that credential, like Ian said, getting that technical diploma, but yet also at the same time, being in the industry, fulfilling those workforce needs and really getting them out in industry about 4 to 5 years faster than they would be if they would be staying in in school that whole time.”

This flexibility in how education is offered, along with partnerships with industry professionals, means about 90% of NTC’s graduates end up employed in the industry, even within their first or second semester. The biggest reason they lose students is because they’ve found employment already, which, Iain said, is a great problem to have.

Support from NTC doesn’t always end when a student finds employment. Iain said they follow up with students whenever possible to find out how they’re doing and see if any other support is needed. “Anytime we visit any of our industry partners’ facilities, we're always looking out for students and talking to them, finding out how they're getting on. We're trying to encourage them all to reach out to us anytime that they want to. A lot of our students keep in touch with our faculty because they use them as an ongoing mentor, and they're very, very good at that. That’s why they’re here.”

Seeing students flourish in the field is the most satisfying part of their job. Shawn said, “Yesterday we had a student panel [with] one of our diesel students. He has a full time diesel mechanic job while he's going through the program, and he had talked about that a truck came in. The boss thought they were going to have to redo the entire transmission, and he remembered something that they had just learned. So he was able to do the diagnostic test, what he thought should be the fix. And he said he saved his employer maybe $5,000. He just lit right up, and that’s just not him. It’s all of our students. They are so proud of what they’re doing, and that just fills my bucket.”

Iain added, “This is the kind of student that wants to be in this kind of industry. And this is what they want to be doing, and this is where they get the satisfaction. And that's why we want to find those students and get them here, because then they can do that, and they can love their job and feel like they're contributing and get that fuzzy feeling.”

 

Road Trip: Northwoods Zipline Adventure Tours, Minocqua, WI

When hiking nature trails seems a little too relaxing, Northwoods Zipline Adventure Tours might be able to help. Located just a stone’s throw from Minocqua, Northwoods Zipline boasts the biggest ziplining course in Wisconsin and the Midwest and offers other activities as well. Rob said he was there to mountain bike along their 2 ½ miles of bike trails (which they have but don’t always advertise) and while Bryan hasn’t visited, he does like a good zipline.

Bill said he has driven past their facility and figured ziplining might be a bit much. He prefers their aerial trekking tour and mentioned the all-in-one zipline & aerial trekking package might be the way to go for a comprehensive feel of what they have to offer, like an ATV tour along trails and more ways to enjoy the beautiful Wisconsin Northwoods. With a proud 100% safety record, it’s something the whole family can enjoy safely. While the NTC team said they haven’t visited, Shawn mentioned it might be an interesting place to hold a student activity.