We were looking for a nationally known partner to raise the bar of our educational offerings, and our students were buying subpar tools. We partnered with Snap-on because we wanted to give our students a ‘leg up’ in their education and career.

I don’t think anyone can underestimate the importance of industry and education coming together to send out and put into the workforce a highly trained worker.

The relationship between Gateway and Snap-on has helped build a new strategy for us at our college, as a way to improve not only the facilities and the programs that we offer, but most importantly the outcomes and experiences of our students. It’s a curriculum change, a faculty innovation model, and most important, it’s a way to help students connect to the real world. Students graduate with unique skill sets. I hear from the industry that students need to perform at high skill levels. We’ve worked with Snap-on to develop a certification program that has gained national recognition.

Sharing our knowledge of the essential electrical skills represented in our GreenApple program means that the next generation of electricians benefit from the legacy of the generations before them.

Greenlee’s long history of commitment to the people who use our tools is reflected in the pride we have helping educate the next generation of skilled electricians.

You won’t get the kind of training Greenlee gave us anywhere else and it was phenomenal.

We are pleased that NC3 recognizes the critical need for digital literacy as a workforce skill and specifically sees the value of the IC3 Digital Literacy certification. Basic technology skills are no longer optional, they are a requirement for any skilled career. This partnership will give more students access to the IC3 credential, making certified digitally ready students more attractive and productive for jobs in their chosen field.

IC3 provides a base for the NC3 set of stackable credentials that will help individuals entering the transportation, aviation, manufacturing and energy fields prepare for today’s digital work environment.

If I just have this program to myself, I reach 50 students a year. When I teach as an NC3 Master Instructor at Train-the-Trainer, I can share this technology and nationally recognized curriculum with my fellow peers. Now, we’re reaching 1000 students…2000 students a year.

Don’t just go to a job interview and say ‘Hey, I know this.’ Show me an industry-recognized certification where I actually know you’ve been through it and know the key competencies to be a skilled professional and technician.

Being an NC3 master instructor gives me a personal pride to step out and work with other instructors throughout the Nation.

All the NC3 curriculum and all the equipment is being introduced to us (at Train-the-Trainer) so we can take it back and start teaching the students with the new equipment and the new curriculum.

As an individual company, we can only do so much. So what we've done is partnered with NC3 and broaden our reach. So now, we are not just Trane dealing with several schools but we are Trane and NC3 dealing with hundreds of schools

For the instructors, NC3's certifications are a turnkey package - they have a turnkey set of training aids that matches the curriculum but also we want to make sure that the learning environment matches that level of professionalism as well. So if you look at all our labs, Centers of Excellence, and Train-the-Trainer locations, you will see something very similar, reflecting what industry expects for new incoming employees.

The unique thing about NC3 is that all students get our certifications at no charge! Every student, regardless of their economic background, has the ability to get an NC3 certification - endorsed by industry and carry that out into the marketplace.

The partnership with NC3 has really increased our visibility and connected us with global partners. Our partnerships are not only sustaining but also building greater opportunities for our college.

Every faculty member that I have sent to the NC3 Train-the-Trainer has come back to campus as a better teacher.

Career and technical education changes lives quicker than any other form of education.

Starrett is not just a company, it is a community of professionals that go to work every day and do the right thing. It’s five generations of family, all with the common thread of nothing less than manufacturing the very best Metrology Equipment in the World.

The partnership between Starrett and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School has been extremely beneficial to our students. One of the greatest additions we received was the Starrett PMI and AMI kits. The part I like most about the curriculum is the thirteen stackable credentials that our students can take with them into the workforce. I also especially like the ability to teach twenty students at once, which ensures that each student gets the same exposure to these important measuring instruments. I have always been impressed by Starrett’s quality and reliability, and when I worked in industry I wanted no other tool in my toolbox. Now I am able to share that same quality and reliability with my students.

The partnership between Starrett, NC3 and WSU Tech is helping our students bridge the gap between their tribal knowledge of measurement and precision measuring. Being able to provide our students the opportunity to become certified in PMI and AMI aids them in the Wichita area job market as these qualifications are highly recommended in certain industries, and has even become a selling point during job interviews. We try to impress upon our students the importance of being able to acquire and use these skills, none of which would be possible without Starrett’s continued presence in both our classrooms and in industry itself.

It’s never too late to enter an industry that is both rewarding, innovative and capable of providing a stable future. You have to be willing to take the step towards your future. Programs like NC3 get you prepared for achievement in the workplace and put you on a path of success.

The HVAC industry has thousands of jobs that need professional men and women who have completed technical education and development. The NC3/Trane partnership establishes the momentum in this critical development area and is changing student’s lives each stop along the way.

We are creating a core workforce that can meet industry needs and attract future investments in this area. Focused industry training for both the future and current workforce is what our area needs for economic recovery.

Developing and presenting the FI4.0CP Train-the-Trainer classes has been a great experience. It is also a great opportunity for students to be able to obtain a mechatronics certification. I have taught the Train-the-Trainer fluid power class in Tennessee and Wisconsin and in both cases, I left with additional ideas that we intend to include in the fluid power classes offered at Lawson State Community College.

The information covered during the hydraulic and pneumatics certifications was right in line with the Festo Didactic curriculum that comes with the trainers. I came away from the class with a much better understanding of what can be taught using that equipment… This helped me to develop a better hydraulics/pneumatics class for our students.

The collaboration of NC3, industry leaders and technical colleges is important in order to create a curriculum that develops the skills that match the needs of the workplace. Programs like NC3 are essential to helping students prepare for success in the workplace, and for the future of the HVAC industry too.

The skills and knowledge students gain from the hands-on learning experiences in schools using what NC3 and Trane have to offer make them uniquely qualified to take on real-world challenges when they enter the workforce.

This is our time for Career and Technical Education. Today education, industry, and government are coming together and all striving for workforce advancement.

Train-the-Trainer is a great opportunity for faculty. They are receiving up-to-date training on the latest and the greatest certifications that NC3 offers and then they can bring it back and share that information with their students and it truly enhances the way they teach.

The NC3 Leadership Summit was an outstanding opportunity to observe the value of industry specialized training with state of the art technical resources to facilitate much needed highly skilled labor in the workforce. The staff and facilitates at Gateway Technical College provide an excellent example of what an institution can accomplish through partnerships with industry and focus on structuring programs to be of optimum practical use to their students in education and career.

In automotive, we are problem solvers. We have to solve the issues within vehicles. When in the classroom, I can actually connect the math skills my high school students are learning in their math classes to practical situations in an automotive environment with the NC3 certifications we offer at our institution.

A picture is worth a 1000 words, but an NC3 Center of Excellence benchmarking school tour is worth years of time.

Education is hard to change, but technical education is much more flexible and much more nimble. We are always working with our business and industry partners to figure out "what's next" and one of those ways is through our membership with NC3.

The skills obtained with industry-driven certifications and technical education will not only help a student in becoming a next generation innovator but those skills obtained will remain with them throughout their life.

The key objective is granting our students greater access to careers in their communities. That is what NC3 represents - building that pathway of hope and opportunities for students to better their lives. If we can do that as educators, government officials, and community leaders, I think we've done our jobs.

NC3 provides the basis of certifications, curriculum, and training. Employers are going to look at these student certifications and are going to say, "this is someone that is versed in skills that I need and actually bringing a product to market."

It's valuable for me to train other teachers and to be taught myself for continuous improvement as an educator. You need to learn and adapt to what is happening today and not what happened yesterday.

The time is now to focus on technical education in America. Let's bring back the dignity of work.

NC3 provides a key strategy for community and technical colleges in aligning training needs with industry requirements. An industry certification adds a credential link from a degree to a career.