[dtengineering]

Um... actually, I do that for a living.

Teach teachers to teach technology education, that is. After 13 years of teaching high school 'shop' I'm teaching in the same program I graduated from 20 years ago... and we've been doing it in BC for the past fifty years.

To be fair, the program isn't specifically "engineering". We cover Auto Mechanics, Woodwork, Metalwork, Drafting, Electronics, and Material Science. Students spend about 30 hours each week for four semesters learning "hands on" in a shop environment. (Okay, some of my lectures aren't always as 'hands on' as I'd like.)

Students are responsible for getting their "first year" university credits before enrolling in the program, spend two years with us at BCIT in the shops, and then spend 12 months at UBC to complete their B.Ed degree. It is a five year B.Ed degree that qualifies them to teach in BC, and by extension most other provinces in Canada (and likely states in the USA, although I haven't followed that through in detail as we don't currently graduate enough students to meet domestic demand, let alone worrying about work permits and the like) I do know, however, that some of our grads have had a good time finding work in Australia....

We have a great group of students with backgrounds in the trades, technologies, and even the occasional engineer entering the program.

It is kind of a unique program, but our graduates make up 100% of the current and past FRC team lead mentors from BC (albeit a small sample set) and about 80% of VEX teachers in BC.

Not bad for only taking 22 students a year!

So glad to hear that other people are looking at the same thing!

Jason