A big automaker is taking part in a summer camp in Pinellas County.
Ford, Pinellas Technical College and the City of Largo are working together to get kids involved in the automotive industry early.
Ford supplied plastic engines and other working miniature parts so kids can learn how it all worked. We caught up with them as they were building mini autonomous vehicles.
"So we figured why not start partnering early, right when children are in middle school," Keith Whiteley, Lead Automotive Instructive at St. Petersburg Pinellas Technical College said. "Because we offer a program through our high school. So junior year, senior year, they could already go through several parts of our automotive program."
Whiteley said these types of partnerships are important, especially at the middle school level, to get kids interested in high-demand trade industries.
"The car that people drive today has way more technology than what we used to make it all the way to the moon, right? If you think of it in those terms, and the part where it's going to be self-driving is not going away, it's just getting better and better. So we figured why not start partnering early," explained Whiteley.
The camp is over for the summer but they hope to bring it back next year. Click here for a look at other camps the City of Largo is hosting this summer.
