Electronics Classes Go High-Tech : Education: Two years ago, Valley College instructors relied on textbooks and theory. Today, they use up-to-date equipment and prepare students for real jobs.

For more than 20 years, Valley College electronics students played a kind of connect-the-dots game to learn the intricacies of fixing industrial computers: They traced legible lines of integrated circuits depicted in their textbooks’ neat diagrams.

But the clean, white pages of textbooks contrasted sharply with the real world, where trouble-shooters--people who fix problems with a machine’s electronic “brains”--confront dusty machines with a maze of wires connecting integrated circuits identified by tiny numbers.

“You know things in theory, but you can’t try what you know, so it leaves you in a very insecure position,” said student Tzvi Ashkenazi. In his first year of college, he doubted that he would ever get a job fixing and using computers because his school had none to practice on.

With the college allocating only about $10,000 a year to replace electrical equipment, it was impossible for the electronics department to keep up with rapidly changing business and industrial technology.

Even worse, students who needed advanced electronics courses had to go to school at night because it was the only time the courses were offered, said Peter Westray, who became chairman of the electronics department about two years ago. At that pace, it would have taken about 12 years to graduate with a degree in electronics, he said.

Without modern equipment, “you just verified theories you learned in a book,” Westray said. “The problem with that is it doesn’t get you a job. Nobody’s going to hire you for what you know. They’re going to hire you for what you can do.”

Enter Tom Oliver.

For years, in his role as owner of the Edison Technical Institute in Van Nuys, Oliver made a practice of calling hundreds of executives in the defense, computer and manufacturing trades to get his students jobs. Those contacts came in handy when Oliver arrived at Valley College two years ago to teach.

On his arrival, he found an electronics program that was solid but offered students little practical experience. Oliver had a plan to correct that.

“We just happen to be in one of the largest industrial areas in the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles County,” he said. “Every week, you pick 10 to 15 companies and you just start calling people. My point was give the students the trouble-shooting experience while they are in school.”

Now, with a revamped schedule and curriculum and Oliver’s drive, the electronics program at Valley has changed from one that Westray said was “training technicians for the needs of 10 years ago” to one that is suited to the real world of electronics repair.

On their first mission for the school, Oliver and Westray sought donations of electronic hardware from area businesses. Although they went looking for gifts, they discovered something far more important: how far industrial computers had come in pinpointing mechanical breakdowns.

During one of those forays, the two watched as wieners-turned-projectiles shot from a malfunctioning machine at the Oscar Mayer Food Corp. in Vernon. A technician plugged in a portable computer and had the machine working properly in five minutes. In the old days, a trouble-shooter would have wasted time testing each electrical connection to pinpoint the problem.

It was frustrating to learn just how out-of-date the program was, but it also provided the impetus for change.

“Sometimes we’re unhappy with what we see because we have to change drastically what we’re doing,” Oliver said.

The instructors’ expeditions also paid off the way they originally had hoped. They amassed four computer mainframes, about 55 computer terminals, 15 printers, software and other equipment. The machines, after four or five years of use, were considered obsolete by the companies donating them.

“We could get money by selling a printer, but I think we get something more valuable by donating,” said Terry Lahman, a manager with Dataproducts Corp., which makes printers for computers and gave one to the college. “These are the people I hire in the future, and I want them to be sure they’ve got the right training behind them.”

Lahman also was brought in by Oliver--his former instructor--to teach night classes at Valley College. Lahman said Oliver “brings a lot of enthusiasm to the program. I met a lot of students who were driven by Oliver and they shoot right up in industry.”

Ashkenazi, due to graduate in the spring, hopes to be one of those students.

That desire represents a turnaround. He recalled when the first few computer donations arrived. He and more than 20 students had to wait hours for the scarce computers to become available, sometimes rearranging their job and study schedules.

“It changed from a program to where I almost quit and went to engineering,” the student said. “The program is so good I could keep taking the courses they offer” after graduation.

Oliver said his students soon will tackle a project that he believes no school has undertaken. When the promised donations arrive, his classes will build a miniature assembly line expected to perform jobs typically found in industrial operations: heating, transporting, weighing and adding. Oliver plans to build flaws into the line and student trouble-shooters will have to pinpoint problems and repair the machines.

In the meantime, both electronics instructors continue their weekly sojourns to area businesses to keep abreast of the latest developments.

“Companies want to help, but you have to deliver the product back in a good employee,” Oliver said. “We like our students. It’s not just educating them. If they don’t get jobs, we didn’t do our job.”