While they’re still in high school, Andrews students next fall will be able to earn an associate degree in automation through a partnership with Andrews ISD and Odessa College.
Classes will be held at Odessa College Andrews, formerly called the Andrews Business and Technology Center.
AISD Director of Advanced Academics Krista Scott, who also runs the teacher academy, said the district has been working to get the automation program started for a couple of years.
Scott noted that students will be able to go on from their associate degree and earn a bachelor of applied arts and sciences, or BAAS degree, from OC.
“A lot of students that do automation are going to go to work in the oil field. It’s a lot of the instrumentation and electronics that you see in the oil field. However, automation also plays a role in companies like Amazon and Pepsi. There’s a lot of different organizations that automation affects,” Scott said.
The goal is to prepare students to get higher level oilfield jobs and enable them to earn skills that will make them workforce ready.
“We have over 25 students interested. We are in the process right now of working with Odessa College to finalize our degree plan and to order the first year’s worth of equipment. But we have had a lot of interest,” Scott said.
As she’s launched programs before, she’s had moms respond to them.
“This one’s been kind of cool because the dads are excited. I’ve had a lot of men reach out and say they’ve had great careers in automation. They’re excited for our students to have the opportunity to get that training while they’re in high school so they can get good jobs after high school,” Scott said.
These students can graduate with a Level 1 certificate, a Level 2 certificate, an associate degree or a BAAS.
“Our students will graduate with the associate’s or a certificate, but they will have the opportunity, if they’re interested, to complete the Level 1, Level 2 and associate’s, all of the coursework that goes into those pathways, so they’ll be certified and ready by the time they’re 17 or 18 years old,” Scott said.
She added that the opportunities they are able to provide to students are exciting. Students can come out of the Teacher Academy and graduate college as a certified teacher when they’re 19, for example, which is exciting but can sound a little scary.
“It definitely depends on the maturity of the student and the readiness of the student. We talk to them a lot about that, like if you go this route, you are going to be a professional in a professional field and you’re going to have to act like an adult and a professional,” Scott said. “But we give them a lot of mentoring and training to prepare them for that.”
Andrews ISD partners with OC to get students associate degrees and with Sul Ross State University for students to earn their bachelor’s degrees to teach. They also have an alternative certification route. The Sul Ross path has produced eight, but with the alternative certification it will be closer to 18 this next fall.
“Next year, we have nine students graduating from Sul Ross,” Scott said.
She noted that living in the Permian Basin there is such a need to train workers who will stay in the region.
“When a student does what’s called dual credit, they have to meet the requirements to graduate from high school. … Then if they want to walk the stage or graduate with the certificate or a degree from Odessa College … they have to also meet Odessa College’s requirements,” Scott said.
When word gets out about the programs, she’s hoping they’ll get even more interest from students.
“I think that will continue to grow once they see the equipment and the programs and the hands-on learning … because it’s not from a textbook. They will be working directly with the equipment like you would see in the oil field” and in other industries, Scott said.
“Just their first year, a student learns all of the National Electrical Code and they learn how to do AC/DC circuits and stuff in that arena. They come out with a lot of hands-on opportunity. They don’t spend time in textbooks. It’s very applied, a very hands-on learning experience,” she added.
Scott said one of the things they are hoping to do is connect with industry and have some oil company representatives speak to students and help them see how what they’re doing in the classroom will apply to a job in the real world.
The licensed vocational nurse program is on the Odessa College Andrews campus. The Teacher Academy and automation programs will also be there.
Scott said they are hoping to launch a fire academy in the fall. A parent meeting was set up for May 25 to determine interest.
“That would allow students to graduate with their fire license and their EMT basics license,” Scott said.
The Andrews fire department is volunteer, but she said they want to give students opportunities to work anywhere.
Jonathan Fuentes, vice president for academic partnerships at Odessa College, said having automation at Andrews ISD is going to be exciting and lead to lucrative careers for students.
“We know that the oil and gas industry is hiring in this field and so we need to be producing more students from this area … By building a lab in the Andrews area, we know we’ll be able to deliver more employees to the oil and gas industry,” Fuentes said.
