Aiken County students are able to gain real-life skills for the future with the Dell Student TechCrew program.
Kenneth Lott, principal at Aiken County Career and Technology Center, spoke to Aiken County school board members on May 24 about the program. With the program, Dell works with a nonprofit in the community, in this case the North Augusta Chamber Education Workforce Foundation, to offer hands-on experience and work-based learning opportunities through the Dell curriculum.
“We facilitate this program through what we call an information port service pathway, which is a part of the IT career cluster,” Lott said. “... Basically, our students take a sequence of courses to become what we call pathway completers. Pathway completers means you take a sequence of courses, along with industry certifications, and you become a completer in that particular area.”
During their freshmen year, Lott said students might take fundamentals of computing, and then in their second year learn about computer repair and service; and in the third year, students will take advanced computer repair and service. Students can also earn industry certifications.
“Once students receive these certifications and they matriculate through, they are actually qualified to go work in the industry post high school. So they have an opportunity to go out with their certifications. ... We have companies that are interested in hiring our students. One of our goals in the fourth year is to have internships – both in the district as well as externships throughout the CSRA – to put our students to work with the skills we acquire,” Lott said.