Auto dealers look to put skilled trades in the driver’s seat
The Motor Dealers Association of Alberta is doing its part to spark interest in skilled trades careers.
The MDA handed out more than $80,000 in scholarships last year to apprentices at new vehicle dealerships and students at postsecondary institutions.
The Lethbridge Auto Dealers Association is part of the program which helps absorb the costs apprentices bear while doing their studies.
“We give a lot of scholarships to our employees at automotive dealers and not just that but people who are students here at the Lethbridge College,” said Paul McDonald of McDonald Nissan on Friday.
“We need trained technicians and being able to have them with our college facility is huge because most of the college students who get trained here stay in southern Alberta,’ said McDonald.
Gerald Wood, president of the MDA, who visited various local dealers last week, said “we know that as an industry we’re going to need a significant number of techs over the next while.”
Wood said with apprenticeships a lot of in-dealership work goes with training and “typically, it evolves into a job which is important for the kids that are coming through the programs. We see it as a role so the Motor Dealers Association actually has an education foundation that was set up specifically for this. We do it all over the province, right from Grande Prairie to Lethbridge,” said Woods.
“It’s not just the big institutions and quite frankly, in Lethbridge - I’m here a lot - the folks here leverage the program very, very well,” said Wood.
A big chunk of the $80,000 handed out last year went to apprentices here, said Wood.
Recently, the MDA met with the Minister of Advanced Education Demetrios Nicolaides to begin conversations about what the association can do to expand and help the government entice more people into the skilled trades, Wood said.
“It looks like the government’s got some programs that we think we can partner with them on very well to drive that even more,” he said.
“They would like to expand and we’ve been very clear we want to make sure that we draw into the existing trades,” Wood added.
Wood said the province talks about an imbalance in the respect that’s given to students going to college versus into a skilled trade and they’re tying to balance that better.
“Quite frankly, there’s some pretty good careers (in the trades). When I look at our service technicians, parts technicians and body shop technicians, even from 20 years ago, it’s a very different career than it used to be,” said Wood.
“It’s much more technologically involved. I find my generation sometimes kind of looks at a service technician a certain way and the job really isn’t that way anymore. You can earn a very good living in that space; probably a lot of people would be surprised,” said Wood.
“We need high-tech people. We need people who are willing to commit to the new technology in the vehicles being produced today,” added McDonald.
“It also helps you attract people having these scholarships,” said McDonald.
“The reality is for the two months typically they’re in school, they don’t necessarily have an income so we try to fill some of that gap,” added Wood.
Lethbridge College, said McDonald, “has a phenomenal program. And with the new building there, the Lethbridge Auto Dealers at one point gave a million dollar donation towards it. So we do support the college and we support students.”
The Lethbridge auto dealers association also has its own scholarship program, McDonald added.
The MDA has 384 members which includes about 90 per cent of all new vehicle dealerships.
“The biggest challenge is getting the students to apply” for the scholarships, said Wood, adding “down here it’s getting better.”
“We’re starting to see it grow” and the MDA would like to see the scholarship program grow significantly.
“When you think about 380 plus dealerships across the province, there’s a lot more opportunity,” Wood said.
“And we work closely with each of the institutions to be aware of how many students are coming through to get a sense where we should see the opportunity coming forward.”