Students and staff gathered Friday at Houston ISD’s Barbara Jordan Career Center to celebrate the grand opening of a new student-run auto shop, where teenagers enrolled in the school’s Automotive Technology program will now work on real customers’ vehicles. The shop, located at 5800 Eastex Freeway, is open to the public by appointment, giving Houston drivers a chance to get basic maintenance done while students rack up hands-on training under instructor supervision.
According to Click2Houston, the shop’s services include oil and filter changes, tire rotations and multipoint inspections, all performed by students while an instructor oversees the work. The outlet reports the setup is designed to help students build practical skills and prepare for careers in the automotive industry well before they ever graduate. HISD also offers students opportunities to earn industry-recognized certifications before they finish high school, per the same report.
Spanish-language outlet Telemundo Houston reported that the shop offers basic maintenance services at low prices on Fridays, and that customers must book appointments through the Barbara Jordan Career Center’s website and bring their own materials. The station also noted that working directly with the public is meant to help students develop not just technical skills but also responsibility, communication, customer service and teamwork.
A Career Center Built Around Real-World Trades
The automotive shop is just one piece of a much larger campus. The Barbara Jordan Career Center also runs programs in construction, cosmetology, culinary arts, health science and welding, along with newer additions like cybersecurity, HVAC and distribution and logistics, according to the center’s own about-us page. Students typically attend the center for half the school day, either in the morning or afternoon, while staying enrolled at their home high schools, and the district provides transportation to and from the facility.
The automotive program itself is equipped with specialized gear including tire balancers, cranes and multiple vehicle lifts, according to Houston ISD. The district has described its push into the career center as part of a broader expansion effort, with plans to extend access to 16 high-demand career programs to students from 10 high schools starting in the 2026-27 school year, as outlined on houstonisd.org.
Growth Plans Reach Thousands More Students
District officials say the expansion is meant to let students begin career training as early as ninth grade and to reduce waitlists for popular programs, per the same HISD announcement. Enrollment at the Barbara Jordan Career Center is projected to climb from its current 906 students to nearly 4,000 by the 2028-29 school year, HISD says.
That growth is tied to a broader renovation effort. HISD is redesigning the center with modern labs, flexible learning spaces and industry-standard equipment meant to better match current workforce needs, the district told Click2Houston in a December report. The modernization is expected to open up hands-on learning opportunities for more than 4,000 students by 2028, according to a separate Click2Houston report from January.
Houston ISD is not the only district putting students behind the wheel of customer service. Fort Bend ISD has also run a student-operated auto shop and salon open to the public, according to a 2022 Houston Chronicle report, suggesting the model of pairing classroom instruction with real paying customers has already found traction elsewhere in the region. For now, the newest version of that idea is running out of Barbara Jordan Career Center, where Friday’s ribbon-cutting marked the start of students learning the trade one oil change at a time.
