Miami, Nov. 13, 2019- Miami Dade College’s (MDC) West Campus will host an inauguration ceremony on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at 10 a.m., of its new, one-of-a-kind and state-of-the-art Electric Vehicle Training Center. MDC will also be celebrating the graduation of its first cohort of Tesla START students. MDC is the first institution in the Southeastern United States to work with Tesla to offer a certificate training program for service technicians called Tesla START.
The Career Technical Certificate in Advanced Automotive Service Technology – Tesla Technician Program, called Tesla START, is an accelerated 12-week program designed to arm students with the skills necessary to become an electric vehicle technician. Tesla provides the training equipment, vehicles, tools and curriculum for the program. Following completion of the program, successful students are eligible to work as full-time employees at a Tesla Service Center in North America.
MDC is one of only six colleges nationwide to implement the Tesla START program, which employs and educates students on electric vehicle technology and prepares them for careers at Tesla. During the program, students develop technical expertise and earn certifications through a blended approach of in-class theory, hands-on labs and self-paced learning. Tesla collaborates with graduates to place them at Tesla Service Centers from Coral Gables to Tampa and across North America. More than 200 students have graduated from the Tesla START program nationally to date. The endeavor is part of MDC’s “Earn and Learn” initiatives which have already received major awards and recognition, including the prestigious 2019 Lumina Foundation Education Innovation Judges’ Choice Prize, a top national distinction.
MDC’s School of Engineering, Technology and Design (EnTec) offers a variety of degree and certificate programs, including unique opportunities and access to in-demand and growing industries, such as cybersecurity, data analytics, cloud computing, and AR/VR. With input from top industry partners including Florida Power & Light, IBM and AWS, to name a few, courses deliver the education that the nation’s top employers are looking for. For more information about the Tesla START program, visit www.mdc.edu/tesla or contact us at tesla@mdc.edu.