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With the growing need for collision repair technicians to understand the mechanical components of vehicles, Repairify is taking steps to equip them with the skills they need to repair vehicles properly.

In July, Repairify announced it acquired the Automotive Training Group (ATG) to create and offer advanced diagnostic training for the industry focused on both mechanical and collision repair.

“Their content and workbooks are the best in the industry,” said Chris Chesney, Repairify’s vice president of training and organizational development. “I’m really looking forward to bringing them on board and integrating them into what we do.”

Founded in 2004, ATG offers live and virtual technical training worldwide. Chesney has a long history of working with the ATG team over his career and has great respect for the company and team of instructors for presenting excellent information in an understandable and interesting format.

As a result of their new partnership, Repairify will support ATG in such a way that they can produce and deliver meaningful content to a wider audience. This includes offering classes that focus on scanning and calibration, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and electric vehicles, as well as vehicle data networks.

“Part of that network might have been damaged or had corrosion or resistance in connectors or whatever that are not a part of the of the collision but affect the overall results or capabilities of that one network,” said Chesney. “It’s important for [technicans] to know how to triage those and validate that they’re actually working as designed.”

Working in this field for the majority of his career, Chesney understands the importance of connecting with technicians so they have a full picture of what needs to be done to be successful on the shop floor. He has worked as a shop owner, service advisor, trainer, training manager and training program owner. All these roles have focused on the mechanical side of the business.

In 2002, Chesney moved to Raleigh, NC, to build out an automotive training team. When he left that organization in 2021, it was hosting 150,000 active learners who were taking self-paced online courses or participating in the 3,000 to 4,000 in-person or live virtual classroom events held each year.

About three months after Chesney’s retirement, Cris Hollingsworth, president of Repairify, asked him to join the company in 2021 to head up its training arm.

Most of Repairify’s training is currently targeted to internal trainers and technicians and is offered both virtually and in-person. The company also offers product-oriented training to customers in a virtual setting.

“Up until now, the primary focus has been to rightsize and enable the internal training team so that our own people can be best prepared to serve our customers in their remote services that that we have made tremendous headway with,” he explained.

Future training will be presented in what Chesney refers to as an adaptive learning model in which online course materials are customized to the learner for an experience not available in a traditional classroom setting.

“Imagine the instructor of a virtual classroom knowing the skills gap of every student on the call,” said Chesney. This will allow instructors to better focus content during the lessons and interact with students.

He said Repairify will be working with I-CAR to align ATG content with I-CAR standards to count toward accreditation.

Training will be developed with a diagnostic approach, combining OEM support information with real-world technician experience using actual case studies where possible.

See Repairify’s New Partnership, Page 62

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