The partnership between the Montgomery County Students Auto Trades Foundation, Inc. and the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) was honored as the 2002 Outstanding Secondary Business Partnership by the Maryland State Department of Education at its Awards of Excellence in Career and Technology Education program on May 29.

The awards program is an annual event that recognizes outstanding programs, student organizations, change agents, business partnerships, distinguished service, and national award winners. The business partnership award is presented to a business that has established a strong working partnership with a secondary or postsecondary institution in order to support, promote and improve career and technology education programs.

The Auto Trades Foundation is comprised of many Washington-area automobile dealerships. For more than 20 years, the Foundation has supported the Automotive Career Technologies (ATC) program in three MCPS high schools. It has helped increase the pool of qualified and motivated employees available to the automotive industry by providing high-quality automotive technology and dealership training.

As part of their curriculum, students in the Automotive Career Technologies program hold periodic sales of automobiles that they have reconditioned. Since the program’s inception, more than 1,000 vehicles have been reconditioned and sold to the public.