In August MATC added the Appliance Services program, which is the only Appliance Services program in Wisconsin. The program is located at the MATC Education Center at Walker’s Square in a new lab. This is where students get to take things apart and see how they work. This program is the one a person takes if they want to become an appliance technician of appliances and anyone who is interested in servicing appliances.
In the program, students get hands-on training in the field, taking equipment apart and seeing how the electrical element works, or breaking down the equipment to see how the mechanical element works.
Critical thinking is a major part of these courses too. A student has to figure out how a machine works. Students won’t get that just by taking apart equipment. This takes studying to learn how certain appliances work and what can go wrong with it. In the end, students should be able to look at a machine and figure out what is wrong with it.
To become a technician, you need the proper training. This is what the one-semester program helps students with. They are taught the technical and the mechanical sides of appliances. Students learn how the machine works, looking at the electrical part of the equipment and seeing how the electricity runs through it, or how each part of the equipment works together to function the way it does.
According to Gil Jackson, student and advocate of the Appliance Services program, it is rewarding.
Technicians get to help people at the same time they are doing something interesting. There are many elements students can get from this, not just technical. It puts math, customer service skills and science all together. It also includes electrical work and mechanical work.
There are many opportunities for students in this program. They  can work for a major manufacturer, not only servicing the machines but building machines, or they could become an instructor for this program. They could also start their own business, or work for a small company that repairs electronics.
With the technology getting more advanced, we will always need technicians to fix the problems we have, whether it is big or small. The Appliance Services program is a great opportunity for students to get hands-on training in working on broken technology.  Who knows, maybe one day, they will be the ones showing up at your house to fix your dishwasher.