Shortage of Collision Repair Technicians�����

CIC Committees Tackle Ongoing Shortage of Collision Repair Technicians

It’s not uncommon during discussions within the collision repair industry about the technician shortage for body shop representatives to point to what they see as the inadequate entry-level skills of students completing auto body training programs.

Educators and others speaking at this spring’s Collision Industry Conference (CIC), however, offered their own perspectives on the issue.

“We do not have a recruiting problem. We have a retention problem,” Virginia Oden, a trade and industrial education program specialist with Oklahoma Career Tech, said at the meeting held in Oklahoma City. “How we treat our employees is key. If you don’t provide them with opportunity, they will look elsewhere. They will tell you it’s because of the dollar. But people do not leave a job they love and where they feel appreciated. They leave because of management, period.”

She said she has seen technical education teachers “work hard every day to instill the passion they have for this industry into those students, and then when they get out into the industry, they are treated terribly. They may leave your shop and go down the street to the next shop. But if they’re treated terribly at that shop, they will leave the industry.

“They can get better work and better hours, with less hard labor, working at Amazon,” Oden said. “So it’s important once we get them recruited and passionate about what we do, we’ve got to treat them with respect. It’s not about ‘kids today.’ It’s every single person who’s breathing. We all want to be treated with respect.”

Speaking from the floor at CIC, Dane Rounkles of American Honda said he once went to a collision shop in the Southeast to visit a student interning there while completing the Honda Professional Automotive Career Training program at a local school.

“He wasn’t there, and I asked, ‘Did he not show up?’” Rounkles said. “No, he was mowing the shop owner’s yard. When I spoke to the owner of the body shop about this, he said, ‘I had to pay my dues. They’ve got to pay theirs. As long as the school keeps sending people, I never have to mow my yard.’ My point: Do not assume these kids need to do what you and I did.”

Bud Center, chairman of the CIC Talent Pool and Education Committee, said too often he hears shops and schools pointing to the other as the cause of the technician shortage.

“There needs to be more conversation. People need to get on the same page,” Center said.

To that end, the discussion at CIC included panelists sharing ideas about ways to improve the technician shortage. Oden said collision repair and other technical training programs in her state hold summer camps that give fifth and sixth grade students some exposure to the different programs. During eighth grade, students tour technical training programs in their area.

“It’s all about planting seeds. It’s making students and parents and counselors aware of the opportunities that are out there,” Oden said. “At the same time, having done

Shop Showcase this for a while, the industry tends to want the fruit off the tree. They with Ed Attanasio don’t want to help plant the seed to grow the tree. So they’re not involved in those summer camps and eighth grade visits and sophomore showcases. It’s like anything: If that Social Media for Shops student has seen your face, they become comfortable with you. You’re with Ed Attanasio building that relationship. You’re starting that investment.” Amber Alley, manager of Barsotti’s Body & Fender in San Rafael, CA, has spoken at a number of past SEMA Show Goes On industry events about the success her shop has seen from its involvewith Ed Attanasio ment with a local college taking part in a pilot project funded by the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation. The students in the two-year proMedia and Publicity for Shops gram rotate spending eight weeks at school, then eight weeks working in with Ed Attanasio a shop. At CIC, Alley said she sees Shop Strategies with Stacey Phillips Body Shops Giving Back with Stacey Phillips Tips for Busy Body Shops with Stacey Phillips My SEMA with Stacey Phillips Shop Strategies with Victoria Antonelli

Virginia Oden of Oklahoma Career Tech said how entry-level technicians are treated when they enter the industry impacts whether they stay in the industry

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