South Carolina offers a paid bus shop apprenticeship program for high school students.
From Robert Kittle’s article on the WCBD News 2 website:
South Carolina is the first state in the nation with a paid bus shop apprenticeship program that gives high school students a paying job, class credit, and hands-on job experience.
The program is up and running in only four of the state’s 50-plus school bus maintenance shops, but state education superintendent Molly Spearman hopes to expand it statewide. She says, “We were just talking a few months ago about how difficult it is to get bus mechanics, and also the importance of having students getting hands-on experience, so we came up with the idea: why don’t we do this in our bus shops?”
Kobe Amaker, an 18-year-old senior at Dreher High in Columbia, is one of the first apprentices in the program. “Doing this, it’s a good result in itself. If I graduate and start right now I’d be making decent money doing this, good money, actually,” he says.
Click HERE to read the entire article about the bus shop apprenticeship program on the WCBD News 2 website.
