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>>Joseph Joyce, UH student: Kauai Community College is preparing its automotive students
for the future. The college’s nationally certified automotive technology department
is now offering a program in hybrid and electric vehicles.
>>Gordon Talbo, Kauai CC automotive professor: We need to prepare more and more of our technicians
to get ready for this new trend of green technology.
>>Joyce: Students like Seth Launder, who is looking for a career path after finishing
his high school education.
>>Seth Launder, Kauai CC student: I always wanted to work on cars so since I feel this
is where they are going with automotive technology, I do believe, I will probably be doing some
sort of work like this in the future.
>>Narrator: Or students who are already in the workforce but looking for additional training,
like diesel mechanic Dalton Thronas. He works for a company that is adding hybrid vehicles
to its fleet.
>>Dalton Thronas – Kauai CC student: No one on the island is certified to do hybrid
so I wanted to try and get some of the technology under my belt so I could help out.
>>Narrator: Hybrid and electric vehicles are a different animal compared to conventional
gas powered vehicles.
>>Talbo: Totally different. We are working with a very high voltage, anywhere from 140
volts up to 600 volts on the vehicles.
>>Narrator: Three new courses in hybrid and electric vehicles have been added, and combined
with the already existing automotive classes form the new Automotive Green Technology program.
The first hybrid and electric vehicles course starts with the basics.
>>Launder: We are learning about how hybrid vehicles work. We are also learning about
how the safety, the safety procedures for working on them.
>>Thronas: In case of crashes or regular maintenance like oil changes and stuff like that. That’s
where this class comes in and it teaches you those procedures.
>>The second and third courses focus on maintaining the vehicles through preventive maintenance
and repair and advanced diagnostics.
>>Talbo: There are a lot of advanced technologies with advanced electronics that students need
to learn about also with the technicians.
>>Launder: The program is a lot of fun to learn actually how different technology and
how different makes and models of vehicles and how they actually make their motors in
different ways.
>>Narrator: The students say the best thing about the Automotive Green Technology program
is that it is available at Kauai Community College.
>>Launder: I was expecting it to be more so offered in universities but I was pleasantly
surprised.
>>Thronas: It is here available for you, there is no comparison to how thankful I am that
this program is here.
>>Talbo: Initially, we train for the local community first but yet you can take this
knowledge wherever you travel in the world.