This week marks the beginning of a new vocational program created to help local high school seniors from Walker Career Center in their journey to becoming desirable candidates for reliable and lucrative jobs upon graduation.
Classes began at Koorsen Fire & Security’s nationally acclaimed Training Center at 7:30am Monday morning for a select group of 10 high school seniors. These seniors are all enrolled at Warren Central High School’s Walker Career Center and are currently pursuing the electrical, building and/or information technology disciplines.
Each week, these 10 students will spend three hours at Koorsen Fire & Security’s Training Center where they will participate in classroom lessons and hands-on training for the inspection and maintenance of fire protection and security systems and equipment.
Upon graduation, these students will receive a Life Safety Certificate. The students will then be eligible for internships at Koorsen Fire & Security, or any other life safety company in the city of Indianapolis. This certificate may also be eligible for college credits in a fire science degree at Vincennes University.
The vocational program has been a work in progress for the past 18 months. Tom Zornes, a corporate trainer at Koorsen Fire & Security, began developing this program after watching Governor Pence discuss the need to re-invest in vocational programs to help Indiana youth gain the skills they need to pursue careers in the trades.
“Our original goal was to offer high school seniors an opportunity at a career they may not even know exists,” said Tom Zornes of Koorsen Fire & Security.
With the support of Koorsen Fire & Security, Zornes began working with representatives from the Center for Educational Career Innovation and later the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township. After much planning, the team is excited to launch the new vocational program today.
“We are very excited about this opportunity for our students. At the Walker Career Center, we work hard to get students the skills and technical training needed for today’s jobs. This is just another great job opportunity for our students. We hope to continue to grow this partnership with Koorsen,” said Dr. Steve Rogers, Department Chairman of Engineering & Technology Education at Walker Career Center.
When asked why this field was so important, Zornes responded, “Every business is required to have fire protection and life safety services performed on a routine basis. This is a field that is constant, reliable and virtually recession-proof. If a high school graduate has already gained these life safety skills, they are going to become highly sought after in the job market. It’s a great opportunity, and we can’t wait to get started.”
Although the program is still in its infancy, plans have already been made to expand this program to cover all of Central Indiana in fall of 2016 through Indiana’s vocational school programs that already exist. Koorsen is also working hard to expand this program to more Indiana colleges and universities, so that the Life Safety Certificate earned through the program may be applicable for more college credits.
