Mokelumne Hill resident Domenico Nuccio began bringing college-level electrician courses to Calaveras County four years ago. He's currently trying to get the word out about a college-level electrician's class that started Monday at Argonaut High School in Jackson. The class helps students prepare for the statewide exam to become a licensed electrician.

Photo by: Bethany A. Monk

It's like an economic stimulus package without spending government dollars, according to Domenico Nuccio, director of the Foothill Trades Training Project.

Nuccio, who lives in Mokelumne Hill, has spent the past four years bringing evening college-accredited electrician courses to Calaveras High School in San Andreas. This fall, one of those classes is coming to Amador County. The class, Electric 39: Electrical Certification Preparation 1, began yesterday and will run each successive Monday from 6 to 9 p.m. until Dec. 15 at Argonaut High School in Jackson. The class is open for enrollment and Nuccio said he's hoping to fill the empty seats.

Offered through the Applied Science and Technology department of San Joaquin Delta College, which has its main campus in Stockton, the class is a three-credit, college-transferable course and also part of the college's new General Electrician's Certification Program. The seventh in an eight-course sequence, Electric 39 helps prepare students to take and pass the statewide test to become a licensed electrician, Nuccio said. Pre-requisites for the course include either previous electric courses or the instructor's signature.

"In order to grow our own labor, we need training," said Nuccio, who worked for more than 30 years as a teacher. He has a master's degree in education administration and is trained as a school administrator.

Career technical education, the term that now replaces "vocational education" in California public schools, is alive and well at both Amador and Argonaut high schools, according to Elizabeth Chapin-Pinotti, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the Amador County Unified School District. Chapin-Pinotti gave a presentation on the topic to the district's board of trustees on Aug. 13.

There are, she said, a total of 1,673 high school students in the county enrolled in career education classes at both high schools for the 2007-08 school year; 600 at Argonaut High School and 1,073 at Amador High School.

The district conducts student surveys, community needs assessments and regional industry assessments to make sure the courses offered through the schools will prepare students for future job opportunities outside the classroom, Chapin-Pinotti said.

At both schools, enrollment is highest in computer literacy classes with 234 students at Amador High School and 187 at Argonaut High School. Other popular courses offered at both schools include foods and consumer economics and agricultural mechanics, according to Chapin-Pinotti's PowerPoint presentation. Amador High School currently offers 22 career technical education courses. Argonaut offers 15.

North Star High School, an independent high school in Jackson, offers five technical education classes - ROP auto, health careers, veterinary sciences, foods 1, and early childhood education - with a total of six students enrolled. Independence High School in Martell offers Auto 1 and has two students enrolled in the course.

"I absolutely see the need for (career education)," said board president Mary Walser, "and I think we're way up there with what we're offering."

"We have great teachers," Chapin-Pinotti said, adding that they've worked hard to make sure the career education classes are in line with state standards. "Our teachers are second to none."

Nuccio, who said he is a proponent of career education courses offered in high schools, said he saw a need for college-level vocational training in the foothills, and had been working fervently to jump-start classes the area. He's still working hard, but now his plan is to help expand the amount of classes. For example, he'd like area students to have the option of taking all the electrician courses in the foothills. He would also like to expand the types of classes offered in both Amador and Calaveras counties. He'd like to eventually see all of Delta College's nearly 30 vocational classes, from agricultural technology to welding technology offered locally. The classes could be held, he said, in various institutions, facilities or private buildings.

"We don't need to build a new campus," Nuccio said, adding that there are plenty of places in both counties to hold classes. "That's cost and headaches."

Electric 30, the first course in the General Electrician's Certification Program, began Monday evening at Calaveras High School in San Andreas.

For more information about the electrician course, call Nuccio at 286-0256. Visit www.deltacollege.edu/div/astech/index.html to learn more about the college's general electrician's certification program, or www.deltacollege.edu for registration and enrollment information.