Three area students accepted sponsorships from PrairieLand John Deere of Iola on Friday, committing to study at Fort Scott Community College’s John Deere technician training program. One of the best parts? They’ll have a guaranteed job waiting for them when they graduate.
Eric Hockett of Burlington, Raef Schaffer of Olathe and Zach Thies of LaCygne will begin the five-semester program this fall. PrairieLand John Deere of Iola offers a full-ride scholarship as long as students maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.5 during their studies.
Coursework, which takes place at Fort Scott Community College’s campus of Agricultural Technology, blends with work at PrairieLand’s Iola location, where the students gain real-world experience as paid interns. Students rotate through all areas of the store, learning how to service, repair and rebuild John Deere equipment. Two half-semesters will be spent in Iola.
Upon graduation, students earn an Associate of Applied Science degree. Graduates agree to work as service technicians at Iola’s PrairieLand location for three years after finishing the program.
While relatively new to Iola, the collaboration between John Deere and community colleges dates back to the 1990’s. The program at Fort Scott Community College began in 2002. There are currently 17 students across PrairieLand Partners’ 15 Kansas locations enrolled in the program.
Dale Griffiths, one of the two Fort Scott instructors, has seen the program grow. “There is an extremely high demand for this program,” said Griffiths. “There’s no way we can graduate enough kids to fill the need right now.” The program is capped at twenty students per year, and “we’ll be full this fall.”
To enroll, students must have a sponsor dealership.
Part of the program’s goal in Iola, according to Dale Lalman, branch manager for PrairieLand John Deere’s Iola location, is to “help make PrairieLand John Deere an employer of choice. We have good jobs waiting for our young people.”
