WILMINGTON – Adriana DeJesus loved to spend whatever time she could with her father before he died. That usually meant spending any time off or weekends with him in the garage fixing cars at their home and other vehicles as favors for friends and family members.
Then, when DeJesus entered Hodgson Vocational High School’s automotive program, she started taking her hobby more seriously.
“You could say that I had more of an understanding on how an engine operates through all that hands-on learning,” she said. “It took a little while for me to understand what I was doing, but with cars, you can take it apart and put it back together. That’s how I really learned what it needs to operate.”
DeJesus has since been able to leverage the skills she picked up from Hodgson and with the help of her father in her career as she became a manager at Valvoline and, more recently, an employee at Carman Ford since 2024. At Carman, she’s helped build out the mobile services department, overseeing where technicians can meet customers in need.
Carman Ford Service Director Eric Swanson said that the dealership is now one of the top performing in the area due to her hard work.
“Everything I learned through Hodgson and my dad, it’s easy for me to explain why parts fail and what needs to be done,” DeJesus said. “I use the knowledge from both every day to help work with customers. It’s fascinating work, and when I was outside the industry for a little while, I didn’t enjoy going to work every day.”
Delaware vocational technical high schools prepare hundreds of students like DeJesus each year for the jobs of today, while providing the academic education needed to secure a high school diploma. Some schools, like Hodgson, include auto body programs where students are trained to repair cars after collisions. Some also include an auto tech program which trains students on repairing engines, transmissions, brakes and more.
Along with the basics of mechanical work, students are also trained on the more modern aspects needed to break into the industry, making it more complicated than years before, according to Hodgson’s Auto Body Instructor Patrick Henry.
He said when a technician takes a bumper off, for example, they have to run multiple diagnostics tests to ensure the computers and cameras used for motion sensors and back up cameras are still working.
“What’s key to me is to make sure [the students] get something out of it, so when they get to a shop, they can continue that education,” Henry said. “With us, it’s not like when you leave, you’re done. It’s continued growth because things are changing so fast and you have to do your best to stay on top of it.”
Jim Hill, a graduate of Delcastle Technical High School who now teaches automotive technology at St. Georges Technical High School, said that the best way for trades teachers can stay ahead of the curve is to focus on the fundamentals.
Those fundamentals, he added, include a basic work ethic and soft skills, as well as circuits and electricity
“We focus on more than what’s found in a textbook,” Hill said. “All these electronic features keep changing, and if our students understand the basic foundations of how electricity works, they can use that to still diagnose an issue.”
Hill and Henry both said the tide is turning for the industry in other ways, as well – their auto body and tech classes are now seeing more girls enroll and both said they’ve had female students win skills competitions this year and head to national contests in the field.
But the more things change, some things stay the same, what Delaware area employers are looking for stays the same. That means companies that reach out to Hill and Henry are looking for a mechanic with the soldi understanding of the basis as well as a strong work ethic.
“When I started in 2007, I could not get a student a job. Everybody told me that they have a list of applicants that have been working,” Hill said. “The next year, I kept getting phone calls asking for students and it was because those employees didn’t have good work skills. We send them after we teach the basic skills, and the employers can train them the rest of the way. They just need a good foundation.”
