Partnerships with Denny Menholt Ford provide critical hands-on experiences to Highlands College Automotive Technology students

The Highlands College of Montana Tech Automotive Technology program, renowned for its career-ready graduates, is benefitting from a strong partnership with the Denny Menholt Ford dealership in Butte, ensuring students receive a high-quality educational experience.

In the past year the dealership has donated four vehicles to the program, including a 2013 Ford F-150.

“It's a great vehicle because it's a V-6 twin turbocharged, with direct injection,” Instructors Jerry Stewart said. “It gives us something to practice on. We don't have the budget to go out and buy new vehicles, so we have to get vehicles where we can.”

All four vehicles are used at every stage of the program. Brake repairs and checks, suspension replacement, alignments and transmission repair are just a few of the modules students work through.

Denny Menholt Ford has also been kind enough to donate defective parts removed from vehicles to Highlands Automotive Program so the students can access to these components.

“They've given the program six or seven transfer cases so the students can practice taking those apart, finding out what went wrong with them, and putting them back together,” Instructor Jason Herndon said.

The dealership also offers a mentorship program, where students will come for a couple hours per day and work during the week. As students progress, they also may participate in the Denny Menholt Ford’s internship program, where they spend more time learning hands-on skills at the dealership.

Two graduates of the program currently work at the dealership, and because the Highlands College program utilizes factory Ford training modules that are also taught at Denny Menholt Ford, the students have a great head start on fulfilling the additional training that is required when hired.

The partnership with Denny Menholt Ford has been ongoing for seven years, and the instructors say it greatly expands the opportunities available for students.

“Without these partnerships, we'd have to go out and buy all of this stuff, which would be very challenging,” Stewart said.