HIGH SCHOOL AG INSTRUCTORS MEET AT SIC

–Section 25 FFA high school ag instructors met at Southeastern Illinois College on Jan. 18 for a bit of professional development, as well as updates on Illinois agriculture.

According to Section 25 Chair Cacy Ellis of Harrisburg, the agriculture teachers meet three times a year to receive updates on agriculture education, FFA in the State of Illinois and professional development that they can take back to their classrooms.

The teachers visited the welding, powersports and diesel technology classrooms at SIC last week. They met up with former students, trying out some new welding techniques taught by those students, exploring the new powersports lab and performing an electrical experiment in diesel technology.

SIC Career and Technical Education Co-Chair Ralph Boots spoke to the teachers about the opportunities for their ag-minded students.

“People are calling us all the time for skilled workers in these CTE areas,” said Boots.  “They are always looking for newly trained and qualified technicians and welders.  Jobs are out there.”

All of SIC’s career and technical education programs have industry partners to guide curriculum and many are industry certified within their respective trades.

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Please see attached photos.

Coale and Lamp – TIG techniques
Carmi High School grad and SIC welding student, Zachary Coale, shared some tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding techniques with Carmi Ag teacher Bob Lamp. Here they are evaluating Lamp’s welds during a session of the Section 25 FFA Ag Teachers’ Winter Meeting at SIC.

Boots assists Williams and West of Vienna
SIC powersports and diesel instructor, Ralph Boots, assists Vienna Ag instructors Vanessa Williams and Jason West with testing voltage on a circuit they built as part of an electrical training experiment during the Section 25 FFA Ag Teachers’ Winter Meeting at SIC.