Universal Technical Institute

And it's like, when I was in high school, I was like, "Oh, you know what?" I went to...

I sp- did some time at Universal Technical Institute.

It's a automotive trade school.

And then I got my-

And the economy crashed, you know, 06, 07, the economy tanked.

And so I went back to school and I am a Universal Technical Institute graduate.

I am on the director's list as they call it, honor student, basically.

I got selected by Volvo as one of their manufacturers selected, um, training.

And while there's plenty of attention on jobs AI could eliminate, employers in skilled trades are worried about finding enough people trained to do the jobs that still need a human being.

Universal Technical Institute, a for-profit technical trade school, is betting there's enough demand to justify a $32 million investment in Georgia.

The school opened its first campus in the state last month in Smyrna.

The site has been transformed into classrooms and specialized labs for automotive, aviation, electrical work, HVAC, welding, and other skilled trades.

Right? Um, so we did that, and then ended up recruiting.

So I did, got into working for a trade college, technical college called Wyoming Technical Institute, or WyoTech, and I did that for about a year and then got recruited from there to go work for Universal Technical Institute, UTI.

And that was an eye-opening experience.

I mean, the insurance thing was eye-opening as well, and, and all the other things, but what it introduced me to was this i- this dilemma, if you will, of college or no college, right? A lot of, most of our kids are being told, "You gotta go into, go to college or go to a university because that's the only way, the only pathway to success." And I was m- meeting with students, uh, every day who if they were not perceived to be, quote-unquote, college material, "Well, we'll get to you when we get to you," right? "Our focus is gonna be on those that are going to college and those that, that really, really need help."