Driving Our Economy Forward: Volkswagen Public Education
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Through Volkswagen E-Labs, Hamilton County students have learned the importance of manufacturing and technology. On Thursday, close to 200 teachers from 17 states learned how a project empowers local students for future employment.
Michael Stone is the Vice President of Innovation Learning for the Public Education Foundation.
He said, “Today, we kicked off the sixth annual Chattanooga Fab Institute. It’s a joint partnership between the Public Education Foundation, Volkswagen group of America and Hamilton County Schools. Where we bring in 175 teachers from 17 states to come and get hands-on experience in the Volkswagen E-Labs here in our community.”
Stone continued, “Volkswagen has been a tremendous partner in this work. They’ve certainly been a financial partner to make it even possible to have Volkswagen E-Labs, but beyond that, they’ve partnered with our teachers and our principles, and they came to us at Public Ed Foundation back in 2017 within idea. And they really valued the expertise we brought the relationship that we had with Hamilton County schools. And they realized that together it was a trifecta that could offer a lot of power and opportunity that ultimately impacts our students in our community.”
Burkhard Ulrich is the Senior VP of Human Resouces at Volkswagen.
He said, “What we are doing especially with the Volkswagen E-Labs, we’re trying to, together with the Public Education Foundation, to develop the curriculum give ideas, have a good exchange between industry and the schools. For us, it’s always important to have a skilled workforce. And when Volkswagen came here in 2008, basically, we looked for opportunities for collaboration with the schools. And in I think … 2017, we started the collaboration with the E-Labs, because for us, it’s important to have a pipeline of really qualified people not only for us, but also for the whole community for other employers as well.”
Dan Challenger is the President of the Public Education Foundation.
Challenger said, “So this is really extraordinary, and I think today we had teachers from 17 states coming to see how Hamilton County teachers and Volkswagen and Public Education Foundation have worked together to create something that really is unique to our community. It’s a set of VW E-Labs now in 51 Hamilton County Schools. Where our kids are learning every day the skills that the business community says is vital for our future.”
Stone finished by saying, “I think something we’re discovering is that the kind of learning the kind of experiences that students have in a Volkswagen E-Labs, it prepares them for success later in life in a way that is very complimentary to the traditional reading, writing and arithmetic. Do they need those things, absolutely. But we also know they have to be able to learn new technology to apply that technology. And as Public Ed Foundation partners with Hamilton County schools and Volkswagen, we’re able to bring some real thought partners ship around how you use that kind of technology to actually transform student learning.”
