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Show tpb&i'-- p yy I liilQjft J' - -i I , v x - - - i ' is l - - X , - 1 Layton High School students Robert Griffiths, Scott Sneddon and Trent Boman won a Buick engine for their school in the automotive contest at Weber State College. ILvMS computer techs By DONETA GATHERUM LAYTON Three Layton High School automotive technician students stu-dents scored with the top six high school teams at a recent automotive automo-tive technician repair competition held at Weber State College. Robert Griffiths, Scott Sneddon and Trent Boman represented Layton High School in the written and practical contest sponsored by General Motors Corporation, the Northern Utah GM dealerships especially the Buick dealers and Weber State College School of Technology. They received a new Buick engine valued at $2500 for Layton High School and many educational opportunities including includ-ing scholarships to the Weber School of Technology for themselves. them-selves. John Kline, automotive instructor, instruc-tor, said no dollar figure could be placed on the educational value the win will bring to the students. The goal of this competition was to involve as many of the top automotive auto-motive students as possible in the training program and to make the students aware of the programs offered at Weber State and by GMC. The students visited the school and became acquainted with the finest state of the art technical tech-nical information and equipment. Mr. Kline noted even dealerships with repair shops don't have the technology that the students saw at Weber State. To qualify for this contest, the students had to have a "B" or better bet-ter grade in their high school automotive auto-motive class. This means 19 of the 56 students enrolled in Layton High's program took the first written writ-ten qualifying test. They competed against over 200 high school students stu-dents representing 23 schools from Kanab to Logan. The 70 written questions tested technical knowledge and repair knowledge. An example of a question ques-tion was "What is PROM, ROM, RAM?" Other questions dealt with gear modes and linkage. The top six teams in the state were selected based on scores received re-ceived on the written test to compete com-pete in the hands-on practical work situations before judges. Mr. Kline said there were six to eight Layton High School students that scored high enough to gain admittance in the ASEP (Automotive (Automo-tive Service Education Program). This is a 77 week school that includes in-cludes a degree in applied science and excellent job placement opportunities. oppor-tunities. The school starts with eleven weeks of high intensity training followed by eleven weeks at a dealership. This pattern is alternated until the training is completed. com-pleted. Again, Mr. Kline noted, it is impossible to place a dollar value on this schooling. In the U.S. one out of five jobs are in an automotive or automotive-related field. Mr. Kline believes be-lieves mechanics now working in the field can't keep up with technology. tech-nology. "There is a constant need for new blood," he said. A student completing the high school program of one year of basic auto mechanics and two years of special training using eight different diffe-rent modules can get a good job at the completion of the high school program. "The top jobs go to those students who are prepared in additional addi-tional education programs to become be-come the top technicians in the country," he said. ' |