When her Kids To Love foundation was deemed an essential business during the coronavirus shutdowns due to its support for foster children across North Alabama and Southern Tennessee, founder and CEO Lee Marshall used the opportunity to accelerate an innovative 3D Virtual Tour recruitment tool she already had in the works for her KTECH students, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

KTECH offers hands-on, interactive, one-on-one instruction and certification in a variety of technical skill sets in high demand in the advanced manufacturing industry, to foster kids who have aged out of the foster care system and do not have the grades or money to attend college. KTECH also connects its graduates with good paying jobs in the manufacturing arena.

The classes include instruction in mechatronics, robotics, soldering and solid edge, which is a 3D CAD technology that provides solid modeling, assembly modelling and 2D orthographic view functionality for mechanical designers.

“Foster kids are inherently resilient due to their life circumstances,” said Marshall. “They adapt better than most people to unexpected circumstances, so they instinctively turned to online learning during the shelter at home order.

“Innovation has been a tenet of KTECH since its inception, and we are always looking for new ways to attract students, especially foster kids, to the KTECH workforce training initiative.”

She said COVID-19 restrictions affected KTECH’s recruitment efforts, so her team pushed forward and launched their way of encouraging students to consider KTECH training. Rather than going in person to tour the KTECH campus on Castle Drive off U.S. 72 in Madison, students can access the 3D Virtual Tour on the KTECH website at GoKTECH.org.

“It is a new way of seeing what KTECH is about,” said Marshall. “It gives virtual viewers an up-close look at instructors demonstrating how the equipment works and shows the instructors conducting the KTECH training.

“KTECH works with world-class industry partners,” said Marshall. “Our training is second to none, and our students leave KTECH ready to work. The 3D tour is an exciting way to show potential students, as well as industry partners, that we are here to serve them and put them on a successful career track.”