Short on mechanics, automakers call school into session
If the sticker shock faced by car shoppers in the showroom isn’t enough to provoke a cardiac episode, a visit to the dealership’s service department might do the job. That’s where a tire-kicking customer is likely to spot the sign announcing labor charges upward of $125 an hour, a rate typical in cities and at the low end for luxury brands.
Besides chest pains, the number might also elicit a gasp of realization: “That’s way more than I earn.”
It’s true that a mechanic wielding wrenches is not paid that hourly rate — the shop’s cash flow must cover sophisticated diagnostic tools and contribute its share toward the dealership’s prime real estate. But top-level technicians in the field can earn $100,000 a year after achieving master mechanic status and five years of experience, said Robert Paganini, president of the Mahwah, N.J., campus of Lincoln Technical Institute.
So, it would be logical to conclude, applicants must be banging on dealership doors for those jobs.
Disappearing interest
Not quite: It’s the dealerships and auto manufacturers banging on doors, eagerly seeking out candidates at job fairs, trade schools and events for veterans. The shortage of qualified technicians is so acute that a year ago, BMW of North America began its own recruiting program, making its pitch to students at postsecondary technical schools and career fairs. While that may be a common practice for multinational corporations, it’s unusual in that the job openings will be at independently owned BMW franchises.
The shortfall of automotive technicians is not new, but as vehicles have grown more computerized and vocational programs have disappeared from high schools, the situation has become more urgent. No longer is the career path a matter of looking over the shoulder of a patient mentor. Advancing in the profession demands digital skills — a diagnostician who can solve puzzles without physical clues, like an engine bearing that knocks or an axle shaft that vibrates.
John Fox, director of Fiat Chrysler’s Performance Institute, said that the automaker’s U.S. dealerships could absorb 5,000 technicians over the next two years, having hired 3,000 in the past two. Numbers of that scale give Mark Davis, automotive programs manager at Seminole State College in Sanford, Fla., confidence that his estimate of technician shortfalls — more than 25,000 at U.S. dealerships over the coming five years — is actually quite conservative. Worse yet, there may not be enough training institutions in the country to keep up, Davis said.
Enrolling suitable is not easy.
“There’s less of a mechanical interest and understanding among young people,” said Gary Uyematsu, national technical training manager at BMW of North America, noting that the biggest hurdle in hiring is the difference in basic skills. “They are not hands-on. Mechanics used to start with some gas station recruits experience. Now the experience a person gets working at a gas station is selling slushies.”
With a traditional source of mechanics largely gone, automakers have had little choice but to take the initiative.
Paying for talent
Fiat Chrysler’s approach to bringing in new technicians takes the form of what is now called the Mopar Career Automotive Program. Begun in the 1980s, it operates in conjunction with community colleges and trade schools. Students are eligible for internships, which enable them to have an income and gain workplace experience while still in school. There are now 80 affiliated programs, with about 4,000 students working toward certification on Fiat Chrysler products in a 12to 18-month program or a two-year associate degree.
The tuition, according to Fox of Fiat Chrysler, is equivalent to the cost of one year at a four-year public college. “On completion of the courses, a student has achieved the first two of four levels of expertise,” he added, preparing him or her for a service department position.
BMW, whose vehicles are loaded with electronic technology, has been especially ambitious in its efforts to keep dealerships afloat and car buyers on the road.
At the North American headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., where one of five BMW national training centers is housed on a suburban campus, students in the Service Technician Education Program do both textbook and handson mechanical work in combined classroom workshops.
The program, known as STEP, has graduated more than 3,500 students since it began in 1996 and does not charge students tuition; costs are covered by the dealership that hires them. A 16-week BMW-specific course prepares students who are chosen from the top 10 percent of their class in a postsecondary automotive training program. About 400 students complete the program each year, and 94 percent are placed in dealership jobs, Uyematsu said.
Soft skills emphasized
Lincoln Technical Institute, a nationwide chain that offers both automakeraffiliated courses and student-funded instruction, offers a curriculum of general automotive instruction (in addition to other technical fields like heating and air-conditioning systems) as well as dedicated programs with automakers like Fiat Chrysler and Audi. Lincoln’s students, Paganini said, are typically two years out of high school and have been working at a job that had limited career opportunities.
Lincoln educates them in both the mechanical and electronic systems, but it also emphasizes soft skills in each class. This is a reflection of the changing environment at repair shops, where increasingly, customers want to talk directly to the technician. The automotive program typically places 60 percent to 70 percent of graduates in new-car dealerships, with other graduates electing to works for tire and parts chains like Pep Boys or Midas.