Good news travels fast. And in this case, about 900 miles.
When representatives from Fletcher Community Technical College in Houma, Louisiana began looking for guidance on starting a brand new Agricultural Power Technology program, the Ag Power program at Pratt Community college ranked at the top of their list.
So Mark Arceneaux, head of the Agriculture Technology Department, and instructor Cole Sawyer made their way to Pratt Community College for a visit.
PCC Instructor Ralph Williams was happy to show them around.
“They are starting an Ag Diesel training program from scratch in that area in reaction to demand for trained Diesel technicians. Our website caught their attention and sparked interest in seeing how we do things to help develop their program. We shared how our program works with 8 weeks of instruction, then 8 weeks of paid internship alternating through 2 years."
Sophomore students currently enrolled in the Ag Power program at PCC were also on campus during the visit, providing input into the discussion as well.
“They were looking at what classes to offer as well as equipment to come up with. Research and development will continue based on input from visits to programs that will host Mark and Cole. We were really proud to be one of their picks to visit and enjoyed our time with them.”
The feeling was mutual from both higher learning institutions with the same goal: meeting the growing demand for diesel technicians, especially in Agriculture.
Arceneaux was grateful for the insight.
“Cole and I would like to thank Pratt Community College for allowing us to visit their Ag Tech program. We really enjoyed our visit with Mr. Williams and the tour of the Ag Tech facilities. They both were very informative and impressive. The information gained from our visit will be very useful in starting Fletcher’s New Ag Tech program.”
