Van Batenburg: Building Your Tech Pipeline

How is your local high school tech ed program doing? Do you know your automotive high school teachers' first and last names? 

I attended my local high school automotive advisory board meeting recently and the agenda went sideways when an automotive technician who was attending talked about retention after graduation. The numbers were dismal. Five percent was the average after five years, according to a few people.

I was not convinced that the numbers are that low, but it can be much better. I am usually an optimistic voice and have learned over the years to listen and take notes. I will add to the conversation after everyone else has spoken if I feel more must be said. Often, meetings conclude with an action plan. Not this time. 

The meeting became intense as everyone shared their views on why we are losing new recruits. Here is a list of problems that I heard that night, plus what I heard in my conversations later that week: 

1.       We are not investing enough in our trade schools; 

2.       We can’t find automotive teachers; 

3.       The pay for young techs is too low; 

4.       The tools are too expensive for techs to buy quality tools; 

5.       Flat rate at dealerships pays less time on warranty work; 

6.       Upon graduation, new techs spend too much time working in the lube bay; 

7.       No one wants to work anymore; 

8.       Other industries that need the same skill set pay more than we can. 

The list could go on. Are any of these issues real and if so, can we fix them? Here are some ideas. 

Schools are regional and school committees can be dysfunctional. These changes take time and involvement from our industry. Make sure your voice is heard. Volunteer. 

When a technician’s body wears out, a teaching job can be attractive, but a big pay cut may be an issue. I train teachers and spend weeks with them at my company. Automotive Career Development Center (ACDC). When I ask if they would go back to fixing cars, 95% say no. 

Many techs starting out are not paid enough to stay in the shop when other industries advertise higher pay. To complete, we need to be competitive. 

 Buying tools for new techs will also help attract young talent.

If you pay a flat rate, offer more compensation on slow weeks or jobs that require more time to do good-quality work. (This is an easy one to fix.) You can hire car dealership techs who are unhappy with their flat-rate pay system. 

Let new recruits show you what they have learned. Give them a challenging job. They might surprise you. After one month, if you don’t see how it’s going to work out, let them go. You may need to change your methods in order to interview the right people.

Finally, work as smart as you can to make the profit needed to hire and retain your workforce. 

Here’s how training works in my home state. A small fee on every Massachusetts electric bill funds the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, a state economic development agency, has teamed up with MassCEC to accelerate the growth of the clean energy sector across the state to spur job creation, deliver statewide environmental benefits and secure long-term economic growth for the people of Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) develops and implements policies and programs aimed at ensuring the adequacy, security, diversity and cost-effectiveness of the Commonwealth’s energy supply to create a clean, affordable and resilient energy future. In other words, we are moving quickly to clean energy and clean vehicles.

To do that, the new generation of students needs high-voltage training, starting at 15 years old. Full disclosure: The MassCEC has funded $1.8 million so techs in the field can attend many classes at ACDC. This has been going on for years, but we are losing more techs than we are bringing in. The funding is only for attending the class. We have invested more than $200,000 of our resources to expand and buy new equipment. 

Finally, let me ask you this: Do you seek out high school students and offer them a part-time job after school? If you do, is it the lube rack, tire rotation and clean-up or are you willing to assign them to a top tech? Is flat-rate pay keeping your older techs away from the mentoring needed to bring them into your team and upskill them right away? How much risk is built into your technical training? Can you afford to supply all the tools required to a poor kid with a rich brain? New ways of thinking are needed today.