Classification: Private career school.

Modules Used:

• Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for Students.
• Module 5: Now That You Are About to Graduate: Taking Control of Your Life.

How Used:

• Introduction to automotive technology course.
• Final shop course.

Program Description: Lincoln Tech uses USA Funds^® Life Skills^® as bookends for its automotive-technology curriculum. Module 1: Get a Grip on Your Finances: Smart Spending for Students is integrated into the curriculum for the introduction to automotive technology course and is offered during the first 20 days that the student is enrolled. The objective is to successfully launch the student's academic program — and eventual career — by introducing the student to time- and money-management issues and strategies.

Module 5: Now That You Are About to Graduate: Taking Control of Your Life is integrated into the final shop course that students are required to take within 20-40 days of departing Lincoln Tech. The shop instructors partner with the career-services staff to provide students with a wide range of information relating to job searches, interview skills, and other career and life issues.

The director of education has provided ongoing leadership for the program by working closely with instructors and career-services staff to identify opportunities for incorporating the program materials into the existing curriculum. After using the program on a trial basis, a USA Funds consultant provided additional training that helped Lincoln Tech finalize its overall strategy.

Staffing Requirements: The instructors deliver Module 1; they partner with career-services personnel to deliver Module 5.

Recommendations: The director of education suggests that, as with any change, you have to get the staff to buy into it. He says, "They can't teach with value if they don't embrace it." With this in mind, he met with a core of instructors who teach the introductory course to review their own materials alongside the USA Funds Life Skills materials, playing out many "what-if" scenarios along the way. He repeated this process with the shop instructors and career-services staff before any changes in the curriculum were considered. In the end, all agreed that USA Funds Life Skills added a more-professional quality to both the introductory and exit courses. In addition, the flexibility of the program, the ability to order online and the quick turnaround of orders provided by USA Funds have made the program an easy "sell" to instructors. Although it has taken a year to get the program into full swing, the director of education says that garnering buy-in from the staff has been critical to its success at Lincoln Tech.

Campus Contact:
Ed Isselmann, Director of Education
Phone: (215) 335-0800
E-mail: eisselmann@lincolntech.com