Sourcing
Training for the mechanical repair and collision industries can be broken up into several categories. First and foremost is the manufacturers' support list. Although it seems this list is getting shorter and shorter, it nevertheless is important. Companies such as AC Delco, Motorcraft and Mopar Division sell parts and provide training to the aftermarket. Much of this training is provided with stipulations that it is necessary to act as a trainer because the products cannot be supported through warranties until the buyers and end users are capable of installing or maintaining the materials as they were designed by the manufacturers' engineers. In short, you cannot pay a six-figure engineering salary and then flush it down the tubes because the directions that go with the product are too complicated to understand!

A second source is suppliers of the products or offshoots as they occur. Training from this group is valuable because they have a shorter route in the acquisition and development of information used for a product or routine. Brand names help sell their products and make their training acceptable. Recently, a high degree of criticism has made this group sensitive to the stylus of the criteria upon which they base their subject matter. Bite size (vo-tech style) training in a classroom situation has been the norm. Within the last few years, interactive video and CD-ROM, as well as concentrated correspondence courses, have shared the stage. All of the aforementioned seem to have been planned and executed at a feverish pace, but with the full understanding that something better is just around the corner.

Better to best
An example of the crisis in training seems to stem from a wayward approach that the industry has taken with regard to setting up stage-two or supplemental training for advanced persons with 10 to 20 years of hard-core experience. Seeking to improve this sector of training, champions of the cause include Snap-on Tools and AC Delco/Delphi who offer advanced courses for the more experienced technicians.

The ATMC connection
The Automotive Training Managers Council (ATMC) has been active for the last decade in supporting and acquiring training for the auto service and collision industries. David Maxwell, president of ATMC, says multimedia interactive training is moving up the ladder and that it is possible and reasonable to accept the premise that a one- or two-day classroom-taught course can be augmented with a group of interactive CD-ROM (C.D.I.) sessions via remote delivery such as through a vocational or community college, on closed circuit TV or the Internet.

Control data gathered supports the notion that it is possible to garnish a 1,200-hour classroom course and transpose it in this manner into a 60-hour modular "multimedia interactive hot session" and train people so that retention is better than twice that of the original classroom-taught courses. Maxwell says the secret is that "self-paced training" eliminates the stigma of asking the next "stupid" question. Classroom instructors also do not have the time to cover any one aspect 10 or 20 times. According to Maxwell, sometimes this cycle of repetition is exactly what is necessary to ensure that the retention of the subject matter is actually there. Cyberspace will eventually be a resource that is central in focus for training and distribution of information in a manner that is simply the best of all worlds, says Maxwell.

More remote sources of training include the specialty groups and service associations such as ASA and the tried-and-true vocational institutions. This remoteness is not by choice. For a long time these organizations have represented the backbone of the direct route for training. Today, however, statistics prove that most of the time these assets are underutilized. The answer here could be that the industry must get the message out in a better way.

ASE and CASE
While doing a superb job of leading the industry into a certification program and not fading, the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) has also provided a guiding influence in the formal vocational education forum. The National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) has certified hundreds of classroom courses and programs for the industry's public and private schools.

Recently, a push to improve the actual training curricula in any specific format has brought the institution to a developmental stage through its Continuing Automotive Service Education (CASE) program. The single foremost function of CASE is to rate and certify the trainers themselves, with the goal of making the training courses more suitable for industry consumption and more effective.

This endeavor offers an impressive look at the future of automotive training which hopefully will not be burdened down with the hype or sales lingo that we are still faced with in mini-clinics that are quickly disappearing.

ASA, a spearhead
The Automotive Service Association (ASA) has not only sought internal training for its membership, but has provided extensive lobbying power to see to it that the original equipment (OE) manufacturers and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) comply with the Clean Air Act and release information to the aftermarket industry. Without the dissemination of critical data such as electronic control module (ECM) service programming and on-board diagnostics (OBD II) mainstream connectivity, the information for technical training that the aftermarket needs to function well into the millennium would just not be available.

ASA also has led the way for a marrying of the aftermarket to service management training with its Automotive Management Institute (AMI), formerly the Automotive Service Association Management Institute (ASAMI), course groups. Improving the membership from the top down, as well as from within the ranks, with technical assistance is certainly seen as a stitch in time by an industry that grows by leaps and bounds every year.

ASE, Toledo style
Roger Kwapich, a shop owner and ASE training coordinator, explained that the association is taking the high road to technician training in many ways and he believes the certification program is the best its ever been. His shop, Smitty's Automotive Service Inc., Toledo, Ohio, is a shining example of technical excellence.

With a large staff, Kwapich supports and helps develop a number of different types of training. He also uses the NAPA Institute of Automotive Technology (N.I.A.T.) to anchor in-house training.

N.I.A.T. supplies two major types of training products. The first is "Skill Assessment Testing," which contains a two hundred-plus test developed in cooperation with ASE.

The second product is the "Self Study Courses" that are excellent examples of what inter-active video has to offer in the way of top quality format. Workbooks that come with the various course materials have "mini-quizzes" and a final exam at the end article. The key, according to Kwapich, is to develop a profile program that will examine employee needs and then use the data collected to send the right tech to the clinic that he or she will need to progress toward goals set by themselves and for the betterment of the shop facility. By pre-screening training needs in this manner, Kwapich has seen a fantastic interest develop within the ranks.

Tech-line... answer-lines
Training on a console alignment system by interactive method can spell relief for those specialists that operate and prefer to be confined to a dedicated format. For the rest of us, the technical subject matter is just too complicated and the varied application requires service information that is sometimes short in supply or non-accessible entirely.

Enter the half dozen or so "hot lines" that fill in the gaps and in many ways have been the precursor of interactive mode training since its inception. Many tough repair questions are whittled down in size by experienced service personnel on the other end of a phone line.

Scan tool data can be exchanged, information e-mailed or faxed, and this resource for training-on-the-spot is available by just picking up a telephone. Without a doubt, this is a resource that will be popular for years to come.

Back to the future
Talking training cannot be delved upon in any sincere fashion unless we take a glance at what car dealers are doing through manufacturer support. At a recent training clinic put on by GM, it was duly noted that GM's training arm, or Service Technology Group (STG), is the second largest division of General Motors. Is there a message here? If you do not speak the GM language, then you might also need an interpreter to understand the bold moves Ford has made into remote same-day satellite service facilities that will be the next big threat to the independents, according to industry sources. Ford has discontinued many independent cooperative training programs to forge ahead with training dealership-sponsored personnel that will provide core support for this new endeavor.

Hocus-pocus focus
Since there will obviously be no magic wand developed that might whisk away training problems, we must all ask ourselves how to best assert a policy in our own establishments that will guarantee the future of our organization by way of the continuous best in technical training. Finally, consider this: Training is the single most critical issue we face as we look toward the next decade. Motivating employees, students and/or trainers must begin by convincing them that trained technicians, managers and teachers are the very best resources that this industry has. To truly be a quality technician today, the employee must be motivated beyond simply striving for the self-satisfying desire to repair complex pieces of machinery. Good hands still count, but winning the battle on the shop floor begins and ends with a disciplined, well-trained intellect. It is this industry's responsibility to make available the tools to train such an intellect.

This article is the second part of a two-part series on training. Part one appeared in the October issue.

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