Paso Robles High School Career Technical Education Engineering Pathway students received hands-on soldering training on Friday, April 17 from a professional engineer.
The training is brought to the classroom through SoCal Partners, an economic development initiative of the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education focused on building local career pipelines and making career pathways visible.
The session is part of the students pre-apprenticeship coursework, designed to prepare them for paid apprenticeships with local companies while they are still in high school.
The program has a dual mandate to support growing manufacturing industries and help local residents find well-paying careers they may not have known existed.
SoCal Partners collaborates with local high schools to run accelerated training bootcamps that teach manufacturing technician skills.
Alyssa Brendenstiner, a robotics engineering and science teacher at Paso Robles High School, teaches a class where students have been building and programming robots.
Brendenstiner partnered with SoCal Partners to expand the class into real-world manufacturing skills.
During the specific project, students learned how to solder and assembled electronic kits to take home.
Brendenstiner said the lesson goes beyond soldering, emphasizing that it is about learning to learn, building confidence, and developing problem-solving skills.