Heavy Trucks To Bikes To Autos: VGCC Student Can Fix Them All

Donald Briggs of Wake Forest is Vance-Granville Community College’s Vocational Student of the Semester for spring 2005.

Briggs, who is on schedule to graduate from the Automotive Technology program in August, is no stranger to motor vehicle repair. He tried a couple of other fields before entering the automotive program.

The Wake County native completed the Heavy Equipment and Transportation Technology program at Wake Technical Community College and repaired earth movers and other equipment several years. Briggs was a motorcycle rider and decided he wanted to learn to repair bikes. He also wanted to check out Florida so he went to the Sunshine State and completed a motorcycle repair school there.

 

After working at that vocation awhile, Briggs came back home and looked for another line of work. He went through the North Carolina Truck Driving School at Johnston Community College and hit the roads, driving a big rig.

“Driving a truck all over 48 states took me away from home too much, and I wanted to spend more time with my children,” Briggs said. So he climbed down from the semis and entered the automotive program at VGCC in 2003.

Briggs has three children, 15, 9 and 1, and he chose to go through the evening version of Automotive Technology so that he could stay at home days with his youngest. Upon graduation, he would like to work in a major auto dealership, of which there are many in the growing Wake Forest area.

The Automotive Technology program at Vance-Granville Community College has trained hundreds of area men and women for positions as auto mechanics. The program is certified by the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE). “The certification ensures students that training they receive at Vance-Granville is current, complete and applicable to today’s automotive industry,” said Fred Brewer, program head and instructor for Automotive Technology.

Automotive Technology is offered as a one-year program for daytime students and two years for evening students.

Anyone interested in enrolling in the next Automotive Technology class, or any of the seven Vocational programs offered at Vance-Granville Community College, should contact Herbert Washington, vocational advisor, at (252) 738-3228.