ISA Technician Training Boot Camp (TTBC)

*Note: Students must attend the entire week of lab-intensive exercises and lecture in order to receive their certificate.

Technician training that directly relates to your job!

ISA Technician Training Boot Camp combines a unique technical training course with minimum lecture and maximum hands-on experience. Over 75% of your time will be spent on equipment labs!

This week of intensive training will cover a broad range of technical courses needed to get the job done right. Starting with basic instrumentation fundamentals and ending with the advanced and ultimate in smart technology, this comprehensive program will serve as a vital building block to your professional development and skills enhancement efforts. This course also serves as a solid introduction to other ISA courses that will help you advance your automation and control career.

This course focuses on the knowledge required by a control systems technician with five years' experience in performing maintenance, calibration and troubleshooting tasks typical of a plant floor environment. It will test an individual's skill sets and serve as a self-assessment of additional training needs and will:

Days: 4.5CEUs: 3.6PDHs: 36

For more information:Contact us at +1 919-549-8411 or info@isa.org to start your company on the path to well-trained employees.

MassBay 'boot camp' gives Framingham students exposure to working on cars

ASHLAND — Twenty-six Framingham High School students are now more knowledgeable about cars after attending an automotive education boot camp through a local community college program.

Massachusetts Bay Community College and Framingham High School partnered to provide the three-week camp, which wrapped up Thursday and was aimed at helping to increase the pipeline of trained technicians.

The camp provided the 26 Framingham students, which included latest graduates and rising upperclassmen, the opportunity to learn more about the automotive industry through hands-on experiences.

"We wanted to create some sort of program to get the students who weren't at vocational high schools (some) exposure to automotive technology," said David Protano, dean of automotive technology at MassBay. "Demand is just off the charts for automotive technicians."

Framingham High School student Kat Barry works under the hood as part of a three-week automotive technology summer boot camp at MassBay Community College's Automotive Technology Center in Ashland, July 27, 2023. While Barry isn't looking for a career in auto technology, she enjoyed learning what she calls "valuable life skills."

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MassBay's automotive faculty designed a curriculum that includes an overview of safety and maintenance; tire repairs and balancing; warranty; recall services; automotive repair pay scales; the diagnostic process; safety in the automotive labs; and other auto services.

Students received a $1,500 stipend for participating.

The program was funded through MassGrad and MassHire grants secured by Framingham High School and focus on education and career exploration.

MassBay's auto technology program offers sponsored programming from four major automotive brands: BMW, Toyota/Lexus, General Motos and Jeep/Chrysler/Dodge/Ram. It also offers a new nonmanufacture-specific all-brand general studies program, which provides students with a comprehensive, hands-on training on multiple types of makes and models.

Kat Barry, an incoming Framingham High senior, said the program interested her because of her interest in engineering.

"I didn't know anything about cars but the mechanics part of it I liked," she said. "I've just always been more of a math and science person than humanities, so I like building stuff, Legos, all that."

Barry said she didn't know anything about cars other than how to drive them.

"It's really good, life skills-wise because now I know how to change a tire, I know how to change my oil, the basic stuff that everyone should know so you don't always have to be in the shop," she said.

Barry said she enjoyed her experience, saying MassBay provided a balance of hands-on and classroom work.

"I know a lot of people here are more hands-on learners than classroom leaners," she said. "Everything we've learned we've been able to apply."

Cole Beninati, left, and Ryan Dingmon, both incoming seniors at Framingham High School, build circuits on a project board as part of MassBay's three-week automotive technology summer boot camp, July 27, 2023.

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Derrick Yancey, also an incoming senior, said he learned everything he thought he was going to learn.

"I wanted to learn how cars work because everyone drives a car but not everyone knows how it works," he said. "It is interesting, but it's not something I would look a for a career ... I consider it just a hobby."

Bob Bolivar, department chair for the Toyota T-Ten program, said he was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the students in the program.

"Without much knowledge of automotive or mechanical, they did really well," he said.

The program has a hands-on paid co-operative component, which enables students to learn in a professsional setting while earning money and college credit.

MassBay's program has a 99% placement rate of its graduates into full-time jobs by graduation, according to public relations director Liz Cooper.

Framingham High's career development coordinator, Julie O'Leary, said staff members noticed a need for students who needed more hands-on learning and were not on the college-bound track.

O'Leary said this need was from students who had to go through a college-bound curriculum because they did not get into competitive vocational schools. O'Leary said these students were struggling with standard schooling and needed more hands-on experience.

"Students are loving the program," she said. "They think their high school experience should be just like this. Students who might typically have their head down and are just not engaged are lighting it up here. I see them taking leadership roles, jumping in front of other students to get the hands-on experience."

Protano said the automotive tech industry is starving for people. He said MassBay instructors frequently get calls from dealerships asking for students ready to work.

"There's a big need," Protano said. "The demand is just off the charts for automotive technicians — there's way more jobs than they have students."

Bob Bolivar, an associate professor at MassBay's Automotive Technology Center in Ashland, speaks to Framingham High School students during the college's boot camp, July 27, 2023.

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Bolivar said he's seen the changes and demands in the industry.

"Back when I started, if you had a little experience and a little talent, you could get by," he said. "But now you need both talent, experience and credentials."

O'Leary said Framingham High will return next year, with plans to expand to other vocational programs such as cosmetology and partnering with health care programs for students.

Thursday marked the end of the three-week program. Students heard from Jay Blake, a blind race car mechanic and motivational speaker. Blake saw a news release about the program and reached out to MassBay.

Blake said before he spoke that it's "incredibly" important for students to learn automotive technology skills for many reasons, "one being to realize that there are opportunities in the trades to make an incredible living and it's also to educate them about the automobile."

Jay Blake, president of the Follow A Dream drag racing team, was the featured speaker at MassBay Community College's automotive technology summer boot camp, July 27, 2023. Blake, a race crew chief, has been blind for more than 25 years due to a workplace accident.

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"If they don't choose to be a technician or anything, they at least know more about what they're driving and when they go and get it serviced, (they know) what the people are talking about when they're talking about their car," Blake continued. "The education they're getting here is so important."

In 1997, Blake was involved in a work accident that caused him to lose his sight, and sense of taste and smell. He was 31 years old.

He spoke about five tools students should implement in life: positive attitude, education, passion, determination and teamwork.

"Remember, we're all different," Blake said. "But that's OK. Work together, encourage each other."

"Life is a journey, and it certainly is a rollercoaster," he added. "You will have good times, and you will have bad times. It's not fair and it's not easy. But if you use these tools, you will navigate and succeed."

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Automotive boot camp gives Framingham students car challenges

Sailing Boot Camp in the Virgin Islands

Here is the honest-to-­goodness truth: After a North U Performance Race Week in St. Thomas, you will be faster, smarter and definitely a little sunburned. Most importantly, though, you will be ready for your home-fleet racing, with one distinct advantage: You will have done more starts, more mark roundings and a lot more boathandling than in an entire season. It’ll feel like boot camp in paradise, but when you get home, you’ll be ready to serve.

This tropical Performance Race Week happens twice each winter, once in February and once in March, and running the immersive sail-racing clinic is the kind professor himself, Bill Gladstone, who’s been teaching the North U curriculum for decades and always greets the students with a kind smile and inquisitive head lean.

North U is now owned by the American Sailing Association, whose primary mission since the early 1980s has been to teach sailing and seamanship. With Gladstone’s North U in their portfolios, they’re now expanding into teaching racing through live clinics and online courses. Race Week students, from all sailing walks and classes, spend a couple grand apiece to get schooled on boatspeed, tactics and rules. But ultimately, the experience is all about teamwork, and the lesson plan is reinforced over five long eight-hour days on the water, in the classroom and with onboard coaches.

As this year’s March edition of Race Week gets underway on an early Monday morning at the St. Thomas Sailing Center, the birds are chirping as Gladstone assembles the eager students. After pairing them with their coaches, he proceeds to pull boat assignments from a hat. It’s no secret among the veteran coaches that some of the IC24s, which are modified J/24s, are faster than others. But at the end of the day, the boat draw doesn’t matter because if the crew work isn’t sharp, a faster boat isn’t going to make a difference.

For the team I’ve been assigned to as a coach, what does matter is the color of the boat. Gladstone pulls their team’s name and announces One Love. It’s the bright yellow that’s impossible to miss on its mooring. My first reaction is, “Oh no, not the yellow one.” Brightly colored boats always get the starting-line caller’s attention. But my team is ecstatic with the draw. The Olson 30 a few of them race back home in Duluth, Minnesota, is yellow and appropriately named Tweety.

I’m not thrilled about the whole color thing, but I do like the name, which is fitting for the exercise they are about to embark on. It’s a song of unity, and that’s what the goal will be: a tight unit with respect for each and their skills, doing their job to the best of their ability. Over the next five days, we’re going to get together and feel all right.

My teammates are Bob Schroer, Marne Kaeske, Melissa Kuntz and Tim Buck. Each of them are in St. Thomas for individual reasons, but they’ve come as a team. When their sailing seasons get underway in a few months, they’ll be racing at Minnesota’s Duluth YC on Schroer’s Olson 30 and Buck’s Aerodyne 38. 

For Schroer, priority No. 1 is crew mechanics. And after that, understanding wind patterns and helm balance. For Kaeske, who is relatively new to the racing thing, it’s about confidence and knowing what’s going on inside and outside the boat. Buck’s goal is to correct “decades of bad habits,” but also sail trim and better helming. And for Kuntz, it’s simply about being more comfortable with helming.

This much is all I can discern as they hastily gather for their first team meeting in One Love’s cockpit before rigging and dropping their mooring lines in St. Thomas’ picturesque Cowpet Bay. Gladstone runs a tight schedule, so there’s no time dawdle. A quick run through the boat setup and who’s doing what in the first rotation, and off they go in the direction of Christmas Cove. The morning’s session focuses on the basics of tacking, upwind sail trim and rotating everyone through every position. And when it’s too soon, we’re back ashore for Gladstone’s first classroom session and lunch at the club. The afternoon’s focus is spinnaker handling and crew rotations. With some additional classroom time and a video debrief, the sailors slink back to their condos, heads full of tips and bodies worn from a long day on the water.

The routine continues the next morning, with the addition of starting practice and one-lap windward/leeward races. Each “real” start is preceded by two practice starts, and by lunchtime, it’s easy to understand why Gladstone promises more race starts than a season’s worth. In two days, I think we’ve already met their quota. To mix things up and introduce a few more challenges, Gladstone adds an hourlong around-the-island race, a counterclockwise lap around nearby Great Saint James, which adds in some navigational skill development as well as some strategy lessons in navigating through swift currents and wind shadows.

On board One Love, I’m feeling pretty chuffed with the team I’ve been assigned because one of the biggest challenges of Performance Race Week is the mandatory crew rotations. Pushing students well out of their comfort zones and outside their normal crewing positions creates all sorts of stress and unfamiliar situations. The bow is usually the most difficult to master for those who commonly hold the helm. And for those who never drive, strong winds, waves and a fleet of student drivers make for heart-pounding starts and mark roundings.

On One Love, Buck and Schroer were plenty comfortable at the helm, but the most peculiar thing started happening: Kaeske and Kuntz, both of whom claimed zero experience driving in a race, were outstanding. By the fourth day of the clinic, their team were beyond basics and focusing on the 2.0 details, like cross-­sheeting, passing the tiller behind their backs, roll-­tacking and jibing. In four fast-paced days, I witnessed an ­amazing ­transformation in this ­foursome—more laughs, a lot less stress around the corners, and more confidence around the track.

We’re mentally ready for the final-day regatta, where the coaches shall only coach between races. But to be sure, I suggest some morning calisthenics on the mooring. I trigger my stopwatch for five minutes, and they get a few curious looks from other teams passing by as Kaeske is on the foredeck end-to-ending the pole to lazy spinnaker sheets, Kuntz is at the back doing tiller passes, Buck’s refining his jib cross-­sheeting exchanges, and Schroer is practicing the roll-and-flatten with the mainsheet in hand. Now it’s really looking like boot camp, and all we’re missing are jumping jacks and burpees.

The “regatta” portion is a two-session, seven-race day, with races in the morning, including one distance race round Great Saint James—this time clockwise—a lunch break at the club, and more races in the afternoon. And as Gladstone promised, they got as many races in as you would over a typical three-day ­weekend regatta. It’s fast-paced fun in the sun. Team One Love is solid midfleet going into the lunch break and, perhaps with a bit of a food coma, puts a 6 on the scoreboard before finally winning a race and closing with a fifth in the eight-boat fleet.

On the dry-erase ­scoreboard back at the club, they later learn we’ve tied for third. On the countback, the team on Huron Girl beats us with a second to their third, and that’s that. Second place is only two points away—so close. But Performance Race Week is not really about points on the board. It’s about getting faster and smarter, and while a sunburn will soon fade, the memories and the lessons will last a lifetime.