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In Marty Supple’s automotive courses, students are elbow deep in car engines, sliding under half-open chassis and plugging away at what looks like tangles of wires in dashboards. These teens are getting high school and college credits, at the same time they’re earning above minimum wage as apprentices at nearby auto dealerships.
They’re learning how to become auto technicians, in a profession that needs roughly 5,600 or more workers to meet demand in California. Supple, 70, says there’s a gigantic nationwide shortage of skilled automotive technicians.
He teaches at Artesia High School in Lakewood, where nearly 9 out of 10 students receive free and reduced-price meals, and at Cerritos College, a community college in Los Angeles County. The campuses partner in a dual enrollment program where students undergo nine weeks of instruction and nine weeks of work.