Trailer teaches technical career benefits

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Jimmie Nicolaus, Mitchell Technical Institute outreach trainer, explains some of the programs offered at MTI to Mitchell High students on an MTI semitrailer Thursday afternoon. The trailer was parked outside Mitchell High School and will be there today, too. (Chris Huber/Republic Photo)

Talk about it

Students stood shoulder-to-shoulder inside Mitchell Technical Institute’s energy trailer Thursday and heard Outreach Trainer Jimmie Nicolaus promote the benefits of a technical career.

The 53-foot-long mobile classroom display — one of two trailers formerly used by the Science on the Move program — will remain at MHS through today. It was taken out of storage and put on the road to show that technical careers can be interesting, fun and lucrative.

Nicolaus urged the 130 students who trooped through his displays on Thursday to “choose a career, not a job. Jobs are work.”

An electrician by training and a bull rider by avocation, Nicolaus told one assembled group not to sell short the importance of technical skills in modern society.

“If they don’t have you on the job, things don’t get built and things don’t work,” he said.

The energy trailer has been on the road for about 18 months and is funded in part through a federal grant through the Department of Labor.

While the vehicle is packed with nearly $90,000 in handson training displays, the crowds that thronged the trailer on Thursday had to settle for general program information.

“It works better with smaller groups of students,” Nicolaus said.

The energy training pods coincide with various technical programs currently taught at MTI: wind turbine technology, power line technology, propane and natural gas; and heating and cooling technology.

A second trailer is being outfitted to promote MTI’s satellite, computer and engineering programs.

Some displays in the existing trailer show how the wind is used to generate electricity and how that electricity is transmitted and used.

A small geothermal loop also simulates how modern heating ventilation and air conditioning units can use the constant temperature of the earth to both heat and cool a home. Nicolaus said he installed a geothermal system on his own home. While initial installation is more costly, he said, the system has reduced his home’s heating and cooling costs to just $25 to $30 a month.

Nicolaus told students that office jobs aren’t for everyone. Technical careers are custommade for personalities who prefer the outdoors and handson activities.

Then again, working atop a 350-foot high wind turbine may be more adventure than some can handle. Students who enroll in that program will be able to train on MTI’s own turbine. The turbine will be one of 107 to be built at the Crow Lake wind farm site being developed by Basin Electric near White Lake. The MTI turbine will be built with the aid of a $1.67 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

A program is available for high school juniors and seniors to take online classes from MTI, Nicolaus said. The program, “Energy Career Training,” includes four courses to be completed in two semesters. The program will cost students $600, or about $150 a course, but available state reimbursement could reduce those costs.

“It’s designed to give students an introduction to our programs,” Nicolaus said, and will give a leg-up to students interested in applying for enrollment at MTI.

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