Roadtec is not a company that most students know about enough to think about it as a career option after school. However, Central went on a trip this past Wednesday that proves that students have opportunities to find jobs in fields and places that they would never expect.

Roadtec is a manufacturing company that produces milling and paving equipment for contractors. They make the machines from scratch in their facility and a wide variety of professionals, such as programmers, engineers, and accountants, are needed to keep the facility up and running.

The field trip to Roadtec was lead by Jon King and Phillip Johnson, both teachers at Central that teach various computer classes.

“I feel that this trip is educational for the students and will show all the types of jobs that could be possible for them in the future, ” explained Mr. Johnson

Roadtec also let Central students try and see new methods of training that they are using, such as a virtual reality welding simulation and a tablet that has detailed step by step animated instructions on installing new equipment into the machines.

They also showed the Guardian System, a network that keeps track of every machine that Roadtec has connected to it in real time. George King, the administrator of the system, says that it has over 900 machines on the server in total.

The company says that improvements such as these could help save time and money as well as help make Roadtec a more efficient business.

“The virtual reality welding seemed like a fun and safe way to teach people who have never wielded how to do it before,” said Hunter Elliot, a senior at Central.

Roadtec also made it a point to state that a college degree is not all that matters. They had speakers of several employees that had never been to college, but they had worked their way up to the top of their fields

“I think it is important for the students to know that a degree is not everything. Through a good work ethic it is possible to work your way up to almost any position,” described George King.

Students of Central that are interested in manufacturing should consider Roadtec. The company is looking for ways to improve and maybe a student from Central will be involved in that improvement.