EPB Institute of Technology and Networking students learn from professionals at EPB
Partnerships in Future Ready Institutes in Hamilton County Schools are designed to promote collaboration between the business professionals and the students in the school programs to expose teens to real-world learning experiences. Future Ready programs connect teens with professionals working in the field to see how what the students are learning today can be used in a career. Students from the Tyner Academy EPB Institute of Technology and Networking experienced technology used at EPB during a visit to the EPB building on West Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. on Wednesday, March 27. During the visit, EPB employees shared with students interested in technology and networking how technology is a part of their daily life at work.
“EPB has partnered with the Future Ready Institute at Tyner, and this is the first hands-on opportunity we have conducted here at EPB, said Todd Edwards, IT support manager for EPB. “We are working with students to take apart the computers and put them back together.”
During the visit, students participated in a hands-on demonstration to dismantle and reassemble a computer. The demonstration provided the opportunity to hear from IT support professionals about how they use the curriculum students learn in school. David Wade, chief executive officer at EPB, joined the session to share with students his personal story. Wade began as a lineman and worked his way up at EPB. The story shared how diligence in a career may lead to advancement and opportunities.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to visit with IT professionals and learn first-hand about career opportunities in our community,” said Erin Glenn, Future Ready Institute coach at Tyner Academy. “This visit to EPB shows the importance of our community partnerships in preparing our graduates for success after graduation.”
Students also participated in a “lunch and learn” with IT representatives from EPB. While the students ate lunch, they could ask questions about the IT field and work opportunities at EPB.
“It is one thing to read about something but to actually get to work on computers and go to a company that works in IT each day and see how they perform is huge,” added Edwards. “I wish this had existed when I was in school.”
Future Ready Institutes challenge the traditional approach to education in high schools by developing career-themed small learning communities. Themes include medicine, robotics, forensic science, engineering, hospitality, technology, business, marketing and more. Teachers of all content areas including English, math, science and social studies work closely with the career theme teacher to provide classroom instruction through the lens of a career. The goal is for students to clearly understand why a lesson is important and how they will use the information in the future.
Hamilton County Schools will have
27 Future Ready Institutes this fall available to students from across the district.
Photo: (Left-to-Right) Ricardo Cansino, Tyner student; Todd Edward, EPB IT manager; and Brandon Sanford, Tyner student. Todd Edwards goes over the internal workings of a computer with the students from Tyner.