Since beginning his tenure as Mingus Union High School’s Automotive Technology instructor, Andy Hooton has labored not only to educate his students but to provide them with professional opportunities.
By anyone’s standards, Hooton’s efforts have been successful. To date, he has placed 14 MUHS students in local automotive businesses that offer job training and, quite often, a great deal more. A few have furthered their education through their employment, gaining valuable skills and certifications.
A few students, according to Hooton, are poised to make upward of $50,000 a year right out of high school.
Hooton said that the entire intent of his efforts is to produce students who can be employed long-term in their hometown.
“When I moved here, everyone said that to have a job these kids would have to move to Phoenix,” Hooton said. “Now we’re showing they don’t have to …. For me, that’s the whole reason to do this — to keep people in Cottonwood.”
According to Hooton, it’s not hard to see the fruits of his labors. Each day, his students are increasingly aware of how the instruction they have received throughout their lives has practical value.
From writing a letter to a vendor, to calculating any number of automotive formulas: Everything about automotive technology comes back to applying a student’s schooling in real time, producing repeatable results.
“Suddenly, it becomes relevant to them,” Hooton said, adding that once money factors into the equation — when a teen realizes how much he or she might contribute to a household once employed in local industry — the light bulb tends to flash in young minds.
Fortunately for Hooton, the automotive business community is starting to notice his gains and contribute in meaningful ways. Many industry professionals who operate daily as “hardcore competitors” have gone out of their way to partner up, providing resources, employment and advice.
“They got stuff donated I’d never even get a callback on,” Hooton said.
On Oct. 18, the Verde Chapter of the Automotive Service Association sponsored an hour-and-a-half webinar training session at MUHS.
Three out of the eight ASA members are alumni of the MUHS automotive technology program.
“This opportunity to participate in real world professional development gave the students a chance to experience training that would otherwise not be available to them,” Hooton stated. “The ASA Members were modeling the concept of lifelong learning that as educators we try and explain to our students.
“Because ASA brought food to the event this allowed a networking opportunity for the students to meet our local shop owners and managers where they could talk openly and hear directly from local employers what skills and character traits they are seeking in new employees.”
