To keep up with the ongoing technical evolution of modern day cars, a service tech must commit to the concept of life long learning. I teach automotive at the community college level and always preach this to new students. I remind them often that even after attending two years of college they will need to commit to a continuing education plan for thier entire career.
If you are a shop owner, it is your responsibility to make this happen. The attitude must start at the top and flow down. I ran a Honda shop for 18 years and I tried to provide training in-house on a monthly basis. So the challenge is how do shops facilitate continuing education for thier techs?
Instructor-Led
Several of the parts companies offer various forms of instructor-led training. This can range from a basic sales type event to a structured series like offered by CARQUEST Training Institute (CTI). At GTCC, where I teach, CARQUEST, NAPA, O’Reilly Auto, and a regional WD use our facilities to deliver in service training to local automotive techs.
Training Tapes/CD
Are you having any luck with training tapes/CD? There are many sources for these including automotive trade associations. Are these a viable source of upgrade training?
Regional Training Facilities
I can think of a few regional training facilities such as Linder Technical Services in Indianapolis IN, Mechanics Education Association in Maplewood, NJ, and EAST Training in Southhampton NJ. There are likely more. Are these an answer for regional training needs?
Online Training
Has anybody come up with some quality online training? Right now most of the OEM training is being delivered online in the dealership. The trip to the factory school is mainly for performance evaluation. Very well developed computer based training can be very effective. In my humble opinion, the independent service industry needs a source of well developed and compressive CBT to help carry the lion’s share of continuing education.
Access to OEM CBT Training
Most of the manufacturers have well developed and effective CBT for their car line. Are any of the OEM starting to make this available in digital format at a non-punitive price? Over a year ago at the CARS Convention in Las Vegas a Toyota Official made this comment as part of a presentation.
I see growing use of OEM websites as complete service support portals, providing access not only to service information, but also to subscription based diagnostic software, just in time training resources, and manufacturer specific technical assistance.
This sounds promising!
So, lets start a conversation about how the independent service industry is going to keep its’ technicians trained and competent. Simply register and add your comment to this post.
