GHENT, WV (WOAY) – New River Community and Technical College partnered with members of Nissan Cole Automotive to celebrate a 2014 Nissan Altima being generously donated to the college by Nissan.
The car is a valuable training tool for students pursuing automotive careers.
“Here, especially as second years a lot of our class work is hands-on,” said Second-Year Automotive Student Christian Baker. “So having vehicles that we can perform diagnostics on or remove/or replace procedures is pretty helpful for us.”
This donation is going to be of benefit to the automotive students.
“Every so often when we get a car that gets bought back from the company it’s a great opportunity to give back to the schools in the areas where those cars are brought back,” Nissan North America fixed operations manager Marco Columbo said. “It’s a hands-on opportunity for the students to learn and diagnose our cars and it gives them a great chance to get their hands dirty a little bit.”
Keeping its technologies up to date is important to New River CTC. Automotive technology instructor Brad Starcher says people want to get rid of vehicles all the time and donate them to the school. The problem is they’re already worn out by the time they receive them and beyond what could be used for a training model.
“Having something newer that is in good shape to be able to do this is just a great opportunity for us,” said Starcher. “We are very thankful to Nissan and very thankful to Cole for helping us out with this.”
Trade skills are in high demand and Cole Automotive Group Owner Bill Cole says they’re desperate for automotive technicians. He says in Southern West Virginia where the cost of living is pretty cheap — with training these students can do very well for themselves.
“Come to New River and graduate with no student debt and an opportunity to go in the workforce and make a lot of money,” Cole said. “So we’re tickled to death to support the program. And we want a lot of kids coming out of this program because we need to hire them.”
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