Texas State Technical College’s expanding partnership with Peterbilt Motor Co. has granted the school’s Diesel Equipment program access to its extensive library of interactive course modules known as Peterbilt Academy.
“We’ve gone from just having Waco as a partner to all of the TSTC Diesel Equipment locations as partners, and that’s just happened in the last couple of years,” said Ron Crisp, the company’s technician school and veteran program manager.
Peterbilt is a North American subsidiary of PACCAR with more than 400 dealerships across Canada and the United States.
“When a school is interested in our program, I put together a three-way call between myself, the school and the local dealer and see what the school needs from us and what the dealer is looking for in a student so we have a mutual understanding of needs across the board,” Crisp said. “The easiest path for a student to get a job at one of our dealers is having that relationship.”
Richard Ferrell, the director of alignment for TSTC’s statewide Diesel Equipment program, said most of the training offered by Peterbilt can be applied across the diesel industry, making Peterbilt Academy a fantastic source for TSTC students. He said TSTC’s biggest goal with this partnership was to give students an opportunity to complete required industry training ahead of time via hands-on learning rather than through textbooks.
“If a student coming through the program can complete the training, they’re going to have a competitive advantage over other (job) candidates that don’t have that training,” Ferrell said.
Crisp said he hopes to donate equipment to TSTC in the future.
“We want the students, once they go to work, to be able to work on and diagnose a newer model engine, and they can only do that if it’s given to them by us and other partners,” he said.
Before he came to TSTC, Robert Sutton, a Diesel Equipment instructor at TSTC’s Marshall campus, went through Peterbilt’s training program to become a certified master technician. He said Peterbilt Academy will help his fellow instructors keep up with the industry.
“We have faculty that haven’t worked in the industry in years; they’re not privy to a lot of the new changes and this brings them up to date,” he said.
Johnny Peace, a Diesel Equipment instructor at TSTC’s North Texas campus, is incorporating Peterbilt’s resources into the Chassis I class, which focuses on air and braking systems. As a content matter expert and former Peterbilt employee, he knows the importance of industry training in school.
“It’s going to be added to training, besides what we give them, and they can actually get their certificate for it,” he said. “They can put in their resume that they’ve done Peterbilt brake training; that’s going to help them get a job.”
Peterbilt Academy’s online modules will be fully available to Diesel Equipment students in fall 2027. However, current students are allowed to request access to the training.
Diesel Equipment is offered at TSTC’s Abilene, Fort Bend County, Harlingen, Marshall, North Texas, Sweetwater and Waco campuses. The program offers associate degrees and certificates of completion.
Registration for the fall semester at TSTC is underway. For more information, go to tstc.edu.