Alex

On June 20, the Automotive Service Association (ASA) hosted a webinar called “The Road to Great Technicians” with Chris Chesney, senior director of customer training for the CARQUEST Technical Institute. Written by Chasidy Rae Sisk * Attendees qualified for one credit from the Automotive Management Institute. After ASA Vice President Tony Molla introduced the webinar’s presenter, Chesney recounted his collaboration with the National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF) to identify the Road to Great Technicians. They began in March 2016 when NASTF’s Spring General Meeting focused on the topic of building a road to great technicians. Chesney was asked to explain the current state of the aftermarket training industry. He defined the current state of aftermarket training as a lack of industry standards and a structured career path, unorganized training offerings, and disjointed efforts by industry organizations. However, he also identified many good building elements. Current problems in the industry include the inability to find new talent, graduates not performing to industry standards, an inability to afford techs and the amount of time is takes to replace a technician or advisor who leaves a company because companies do not build bench strength. Chesney stressed, “You have to invest in those new technicians, but many shops cannot find someone who can perform out of the gate, so we need to focus on growing our own and building our bench strength to overcome this problem. We have a need now for the next several years. Reports indicate that we need 80,000 technicians each year, but only 25,000 are being produced.” Chesney identified the aging workforce, oncoming tidal wave of technology and lack of a structured career path as reasons for the significant needs for technicians. Focusing on the influx of technology, he explored the unseemly amount of data that is transferred within modern vehicles. “It’s not the problem of education,” he said. “It’s our problem, and we’re going to look into that.” Chesney presented a picture of the Technician Life Cycle, which included the following seven steps: secondary shadowing, post-secondary intern, entry-level apprentice, technician, senior technician, master technician and specialist; however, he noted that this does not include possible “off ramps” on the Road to Great Technicians. Occurring after an industry professional becomes an entry-level technician, these “off ramps” include in-service continuing education and higher education, which can offer technicians a variety of paths to pursue in their careers, ranging from master technician to shop foreman to shop owner or even becoming an engineer for an OEM. In a January 2018 meeting, the education team at NASTF identified a subcommittee of industry experts tasked with creating a framework of education around the life cycle of a technician and other job roles within the industry. This framework is intended for curriculum providers to use in order to offer a career pathway that means something to the industry and is transferrable throughout the industry. The group began with the vision that they would prescribe degrees of competencies at every skill level, focused on the safety and reliability of the ground vehicle fleet. This Road to Great Technicians team consists of NASTF Chair Mark Saxonberg, Toyota’s Jill Saunders, WTI’s Rob Morrell, CTI’s Chris Chesney, NACAT’s Bill Haas, of Diag.net’s Scott Brown, WTI’s Mark Warren, NASTF’s Donny Seyfer, ASE’s Trish Serratore, S/P2’s Kyle Holt, DrewTech’s Bob Augustineand Cengage’s Erin Brennan. Exploring possible solutions to the industry’s problem, this group defined 13 solution elements, starting with new and enhanced communication with parents and influencers of peripheral students, early engagement with tactile students in middle and high school, support of STEM and development of a well-articulated career path with clear opportunities for advancement and growth that students and parents can see. The industry also needs to get involved with vocational education content to ensure these programs provide the right skills to students. Chesney explained, “They’re producing the wrong technicians because we aren’t involved. We have to be involved. We need to design a curriculum for schools and employers to ensure that, regardless of where technicians work, they are uniformly trained for the skill level. We have to provide people with the opportunity to grow throughout their careers.” The team also believes that the industry needs to provide internship experience, develop programs to help in-service technicians become mentors, and ensure that testing and certification programs are uniform and tiered to provide milestones for achievement. Employers also must find ways to provide wages and benefits that are competitive with other industries attracting the same individuals. “As technicians progress through their career, it is imperative to communicate career options to ensure they don’t leave the industry,” Chesney elaborated. “Vehicle technology has accelerated to unprecedented levels, necessitating faster and more thorough technician skill development to ensure public safety. To add further credibility and value to the process, NASTF is encouraging practical examinations similar to other safety-related skills as a means to verify requisite skill level attainment. Currently, this is not regulated and we cannot keep up with the advancing rates of technology, but we need a way to prove our skills and be prepared for what’s coming, not merely what is on the road right now.” The current state of industry education is outcome-based and not sufficient to serve today’s technology. The future of education must be competency-based with a focus on mastery of skill and validation of a technician’s mastery and development of skills that are recognized and transferable. A competency-based education offers a variable class structure and the ability to test out of the subject matter at different levels, enabling students to finish as they are able. The Road to Great Technicians team defined a new NASTF Technician Life Cycle that includes seven steps: apprentice technician, maintenance technician, service technician, repair technician, diagnostic technician, master technician, and specialist technician. According to Chesney, “Each step would require a variety of requirements as far as training and experience. They would also require mastery of competencies using curriculum provided by the industry, to include mentoring, demonstrated skills and self-paced curriculum. Finally, technicians seeking to advance would prove their skills through oral and hands-on exams.” Continuing the work they have started, the team plans to provide the industry with a white paper by the end of the year, but they encourage the industry to comment and opine. While the team will be limited in size in order to maximize effectiveness, they encourage industry professionals to join NASTF and the NASTF Education Team. The group’s vision for the future of automotive education culminates in the idea of the Automotive Institute of Science and Technology, which would include a pathway education in a project-based environment. In ninth and 10th grades, students would sample each pathway through projects designed to highlight the different aspects and career fields before choosing a specific pathway in 11th grade to focus on in their final two years of high school. Their choices would be automotive technology as a trade, business, or engineering. While obtaining their associates degree, students would enter the discipline of their choice, working in shops to gain practical experience while simultaneously acting as mentors to younger students. Chesney concluded the webinar with a question and answer session. Article Source: https://www.autobodynews.com/index.php/component/k2/item/15820-asa-hosts-road-to-great-technicians-webinar-with-carquest-s-chris-chesney.html

Have a happy 4th of July everyone!

https://www.moderntiredealer.com/news/730291/bridgestone-is-dropping-atd-as-a-distributor

@JustTheBest You can post the videos directly within the post by just copying and pasting the youtube url into the editor 😁

Auto Care Association Supports Supreme Court Decision Allowing States to Collect Online Sales Tax POSTED BY AUTO CARE NEWS ON JUNE 21, 2018 The Auto Care Association applauds today’s decision by the Supreme Court to permit states to collect sales tax on purchases of products made over the Internet. The 5-4 decision means that online sellers will now be on a level playing field with brick and mortar retailers regarding charging sales tax. The Auto Care Association had filed an amicus brief with other retail groups urging the Supreme Court to hear the case based on the price advantage that the current system provided on-line sellers. The decision overturns a previous Supreme Court decision that required companies to have a physical presence in the state where the purchaser resided in order to charge sales tax. “This is an important decision for many of Auto Care’s retail members and we are pleased that the Supreme Court saw the unfairness in the current system and determined to make everyone play by the same rules,” said Aaron Lowe, senior vice president, regulatory and government affairs, Auto Care Association. “We hope that implementation of the sales tax will be done uniformly across state lines to ensure a fair and efficient system of tax collection.

That's a good point about some states that do not charge sales tax. There's also suggestions being made about having an online sales tax amount that is the same across state borders, so we'll see where that goes.

Very interesting ruling today and it'll be interesting to see how it affects smaller online sellers. Larger ones like Amazon already comply in some states and will easily implement it, but what about their marketplace sellers that don't charge tax? ebay is another one....

Check out some of the instructor led training at CTI http://ctionline.com/index.php/cti-instructor-led-class-schedule.html Also WTI http://www.worldpac.com/training/classes/technical/

That's a great tip! https://moz.com/blog/boost-conversions-with-google-posts

@autobodyguys Nice layout! Looks like you are using a wordpress theme commonly used to build sites which is good. I would consider moving your domain to https:// at some point and checking your slider images for clarity on larger screens. The car image for instance, its stretched beyond its dimensions causing it to be slightly grainy on larger desktop screens, which you can solve by using a larger image for desktop and smaller image for mobile or resizing correctly. Personally, I'm not a fan of using white text with shadowing on white background like in your logo because it gets lost a bit, but that may be just me. 😋 Maybe put a background on the "collision repair" text within the logo image like you have it on your building: Your slider image text should be moved higher because its at the bottom of the screen on desktops (checked in Chrome browser). You should put that higher towards the middle of the page view. This is on a quick look of course...😁 You can run a SEO test here: https://seositecheckup.com, you'll find a few things like image alt tags and page caching to improve speed as opportunities.

Most websites and website designers these days follow the guideline of 160 characters when writing website page meta descriptions. When they are longer, Google just truncates them to 160...well until December 2017 when Google decided to accept that number to be around 300 with some recommending to make it 320. If your web designer wrote your website page descriptions shorter, you aren't taking advantage of the description tag to better your SEO and possibly your click-through rate. It's time to look at your website pages to be sure. Feel free to join and post in my group and we'll take a peak for you. Good read: https://www.compose.agency/insights/meta-description-length-2018

There is an ongoing topic you may want to check out:

Welcome to AutoShopOwner! Bumping this topic for you...😉

If anyone is looking for the article @autorepairuniversity mentioned, I believe it's this one by @Elite Worldwide Inc.

Welcome to AutoShopOwner!

LOL...somehow facebook makes their 16B a year!

Yes they are tracking us, but we know this, right? I was with a group of people very recently, and they were all thinking about getting off their facebook accounts because of the latest backlash around facebook and their data. The hashtag #DeleteFacebook has picked up some steam and media outlets are all talking about it. Almost as if they didn't know that Facebook was collecting all of their data and when they accessed their facebook app on their phone or mobile device, facebook was tracking a lot more. That's the trade-off for using their free service. Facebook gets loads of data, shows you targeted ads, and is able to monetize that data. Google does the same, its all about the data and parsing that data for profit. Even when you delete your data, is it really gone? So the question is, will this hurt facebook? Memberships from the younger generation are declining already, as they flock to snapchat and instagram, so now with a concern of, "what is facebook doing with my information out there", is this a problem for them? Maybe not, we'll have to wait and see. Facebook is part of so many people's daily lives, so it will be interesting to see where this all goes and if it affects them. Facebook will not last forever because it simply isn't "cool" to the younger generation. It'll probably change and let's not forget that they own Instagram, WhatsApp and a bunch of other companies. Tip...if you don't want your data tracked, shut off your settings in your facebook account, your apps, and your phone privacy settings. There are many tutorials online that can help you. 🙂

@Martin I like that you've added Whatsapp as a contact method. On a quick look and not a huge deal, you've got some styling issues in your footer with your links and a little red box coming up on chrome: Looking at your footer area code, that red box is where your contact form response would be placed. You are using the latest version of wordpress which is good and this is just a template/css fix your designer can make. I would think about moving to https:// you are currently on http://. I would also make your youtube and facebook links larger, they get lost a bit. @risingsunmotors, nice website. Maybe think about contacting Net driven and moving over to https. @Mosher Looks good, clean design. 👍 Did you use a third party site like WIX or something like that?

Free webinar for all members hosted by @Ron Ipach from Captain Car Count! As you already know, finding good, qualified technicians isn’t as easy as it was in years past. Gone are the days of simply placing a few ads online or in the newspaper help-wanted section. When you combine the fact that more shops than ever are in the hunt for qualified applicants, with the ever-shrinking pool of technicians to draw from, it’s no wonder so many shop owners are frustrated with their search. Attracting good technicians today requires a radically different approach, and on this highly informative online training event, Ron Ipach, president of Repair Shop Coach, will walk you through the same strategies that his clients are using to attract lots of highly qualified to their shops on a consistent basis. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER Time slots vary and are held weekly: Please reach out to @Ron Ipach for additional information.