Bergen County Technical Schools honored Charles Willis of Jaguar Land Rover of North America for supporting the district’s automotive technology program.
Bergen County Technical Schools honored Charles Willis of Jaguar Land Rover of North America as its 2020 Business Partner of the Year.
The award is given annually to a county vocational-technical school business partner for outstanding contributions to career and technical education. Business partners play a variety of roles, including serving on county vocational-technical school program advisory boards, offering opportunities for students to gain valuable work experience, donating equipment, or serving as mentors and role models for students.
“Charles Willis has been a valuable resource for the district both before and during the COVID crisis,” said Bergen County Technical Schools Superintendent Dr. Howard Lerner.
Prior to the pandemic, he educated the district’s automotive technology students on the job opportunities that exist for trained Jaguar Land Rover technicians. This included making their corporate training platform available to students to take those certification programs online, free of charge.
In addition, Willis and his team of technicians have shared the latest in Jaguar technology like the new E-PACE SUV with teachers and students.
Since the COVID crisis began last March, Willis has reached out to the district to lend whatever support he could to our programs, including sharing video tutorials with teachers and volunteering to conduct virtual classroom presentations, Lerner said.
