LRCC drives home a T-TEN certification from Toyota

LACONIA — Lakes Region Community College’s Auto Technology T-TEN Program has been officially certified by Toyota. A relatively new degree for LRCC, T-TEN (Technician Training and Education Network) is the only college in the tri-state area to offer this curriculum.

The certification required hundreds of work hours over the last year and a half to meet this accreditation. Toyota’s extensive program trains faculty in classroom management, curriculum, development, targeted recruiting, and program management. In addition to updating and aligning each ASE area curriculum to student learning outcomes, the auto faculty were required to install, log, and track over 400 faults on the Toyota-provided fleet of vehicles. This extensive process ensures program consistency and helps demonstrate the high standards needed to facilitate this program.   

“The level of support provided by Toyota, Toyota Boston Region, and the T-TEN Instructor Community has been amazing," said Jamie Decato, LRCC Department Chair-Transportation Technologies. "They have provided guidance and support for LRCC’s instructional team, who have given hundreds of hours to this effort at every step to ensure successful certification. We will use this benchmark to maintain high-quality program standards and build upon it to elevate the program to meet and exceed the needs of our students and our industry partners. We are truly honored to join the ranks of certified T-TEN schools." 

Toyota has partnered with LRCC through this journey by providing extensive instructor training, both on-site and at the national headquarters in Plano, Texas, working side by side to meet these goals. This month, several Toyota trainers and representatives from across the country visited LRCC to conduct an intense review of documents and vehicle fault adaptation over two days to ensure all aspects of the LRCC’s T-TEN program were up to standard.  

Following the review, Toyota T-TEN representatives addressed the program faculty, college administration, participating dealers, and the first cohort of T-TEN students with a report of their findings. The review team unanimously supported program certification and presented program faculty, Timothy Barraclough and Kimberly Stevenson with the official certification plaque. 

During this presentation, it was noted that when Toyota was looking for a new home for its program, LRCC’s state-of-the-art auto facilities, established industry relationships, and success of existing cooperative education partnerships set them apart. The college’s offering of student housing was another factor in their decision-making. For more information on the T-TEN or any of LRCC’s auto programs, please visit lrcc.edu.