Autodesk® Certified User Indiana High School Prepares Students for Manufacturing and Industrial Workforce with Autodesk Certifi

Autodesk® Certified User

Success Story

Indiana High School Prepares Students for Manufacturing and Industrial Workforce with Autodesk Certified User Exam

Heritage Hills High School Implements Certification

HERITAGE HILLS HIGH SCHOOL in CTE Engineering Program ENGINEERING PROGRAM

Location: Lincoln City, Indiana

Program Enrollment: • 75 students per year and growing

CHALLENGE Approximately 75 students participate Success Metrics: Heritage Hills High School serves approximately in the Engineering Program at Heritage • Teaching industry skills to 700 9th through 12th graders in Lincoln City, Hills each year, taking courses such as prepare students for the Indiana. With significantly higher scores than Introduction to Engineering and Design, workforce the state average, Heritage Hills boasts an Principles of Engineering, Computer • Credential valued by advanced impressive 90 percent graduation rate, and also Integrated Manufacturing, CAD and education facilities and local offers several Career and Technical Education Advanced Engineering. Hohne teaches all and global employers programs for students. of the engineering courses, which include • Certification to validate instruction in Autodesk applications, the leading engineering The Engineering Program, which is also a industry leading 3D design and software skills nationally certified Project Lead The Way® engineering software. (PLTW) program, gives students access to state- of-the-art technology to learn computer-aided “Autodesk software is used heavily in the drafting and advanced manufacturing concepts. engineering industry, and I want my students to know it well so they can jump right into “Manufacturing and agriculture are the a job without the employer needing to train dominant industries in Southern Indiana, so I them,” said Hohne. am striving to prepare my engineering students for the workforce or two- or four-year programs After teaching the Engineering program for a in this industry after high school,” said Jennifer few years, Hohne hoped to find a certification Hohne, Engineering Instructor at Heritage Hills. program to help her students validate their “Autodesk software Autodesk software skills. She knew certification it was offered, and Hohne was pleased with is used heavily in the would boost their resumes and also satisfy the the results. “The students who earned state’s requirements for an industry-recognized certification were very excited. They knew engineering industry, certification as one step to earning a technical Autodesk was widely used in the engineering and I want my students honors diploma. and manufacturing industry and at local to know it well so they employers, so this certificationwould help SOLUTION them in college or to find a job.” can jump right into a job Hohne researched certification and contacted without the employer Autodesk, but at the time they did not have a Local industry employers see the value needing to train them.” student certification exam available. They were, of certification, such as Jarid Hirt, Vice however, in the process of developing an online President at Spencer Industries. Spencer exam for students that would be distributed Jennifer Hohne Industries is a custom thermoformer in by Certiport. Engineering Instructor Dale,Indiana. at Heritage Hills “I knew the Autodesk Certified User Exam “The employees we hire for our shop floor being developed by Autodesk and Certiport was must have a high school diploma, but if they exactly what I needed, so I continued to teach have CAD training, they can more easily the software in my courses and waited patiently be promoted to work as set-up technicians for the exams to be released,” said Hohne. for our computer numerical control (CNC) Hohne took an early version of the exam and machine,” said Hirt. “These high school provided feedback to Autodesk and Certiport. students are taught to be comfortable Then, she became a Certiport Authorized working in a three dimensional space, which Testing Center and when they were ready, began gives them a leg up on using our equipment.

® to offer AutoCAD Certified User and Autodesk Any type of certification, such as Autodesk’s Inventor® Certified User certifications to certification program, just validates for us her students. that the individual is better prepared to work for us.” “Jay Hohne championed the Autodesk exams and worked very hard to get the program going Hohne also teaches an AutoCAD course for at Heritage Hills,” said Glenn Weil, Patoka college credit through Vincennes University Valley Career and Technical Education Director. with mostly adult participants, and she “The district is very supportive of any teacher hopes to expand the program to allow more who can find a valuable, industry-recognized members of the workforce and community ABOUT CERTIPORT certification like Autodesk’s certification and to certify. “The incumbent workers in our Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, is the leading provider of certification exam development, delivery fit it into their curriculum to give students an local economy would benefit greatly from and program management services delivered through added credential.” this instruction and exam, I truly hope an expansive network of over 12,000 Certiport Authorized Testing Centers worldwide. Certiport we can expand the program to help the manages a sophisticated portfolio of leading Since Heritage Hills already taught Autodesk certification programs including: the official Microsoft economy in Indiana,” she said. Office Specialist certification program, the Microsoft tools in the Engineering Program, they chose Technology Associate certification program, the Adobe® Certified Associate certification program, not to make any changes to the existing courses Weil believes certification does two the HP Accredited Technical Associate, the CompTIA or curriculum for the certification exams. things – helps schools earn higher marks on Strata™ IT Fundamentals, the Autodesk Certified User certification program, the Intuit QuickBooks Students spent approximately an hour a day standard evaluations and shows employers Certified User certification program and the Internet working with the software and then took the that certified students have validated and Computing Core Certification (IC³®). Certiport reliably delivers over two million tests each year exam towards the end of the school year. The knowledge. “Certification is incredibly throughout the secondary, post-secondary, workforce Heritage Hills AutoCAD course is a dual credit valuable, since it proves the certified and corporate technology markets in more than 158 countries and 27 languages worldwide. For more course through Ivy Tech, so students can also individual knows how to practice the skill in information, please visit www.certiport.com . earn college credit with certification. a real world setting. The students who earn Autodesk certification are better prepared RESULTS for further study or the workforce with this Fifteen Heritage Hills students took the accomplishment on their resume.” Autodesk Certified User exam the first time