Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Auto industry reps get students revved up about career opportunities
DOWNINGTOWN >> The 2016 Auto Collision Experience (ACE) brought together 22 industry representatives and nearly 400 students from 17 technical high schools across Chester, Delaware, Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Lancaster, Lebanon and Berks Counties for a mutually beneficial day of career discovery and fun on April 13.
Spearheaded by the Chester County Technical College High School (TCHS) and hosted at its Brandywine campus in Downingtown, the ACE event was designed to showcase the variety of career paths available across all disciplines in the automotive collision industry.
Like last year’s event, ACE featured displays, demonstrations and Q&A sessions, but ACE 2016 introduced mock interviews with the students.
Representatives from each automotive company on the ACE committee interviewed students with a mutually agreed upon set of questions and scoring rubric. At the end, both the students’ instructors and the industry partners received the scores; the instructors got to see where they can help their students improve, and the industry partners got a list of potentially qualified employees.
Crystal Grossenbacher, a senior at TCHS Brandywine interviewed with the representative from Enterprise, but she can see herself at any of the companies there. “I like all of them,” she said. “I like doing hands-on stuff. It doesn’t matter what it is.”
Jeff Kulp of Kulp Car Rentals was impressed with the caliber of the students he interviewed. “They are way better than I was at this age,” he said.
That was the consensus of the industry representatives at ACE; they were impressed by the students they met. Anna Reif of CARSTAR commented on the enthusiasm the students showed. “They asked great questions and were all very engaged.”
The first ACE event was organized in 2015 to combat the labor shortage and lack of awareness about the career paths and booming growth in the automotive collision industry. The Collision Repair Education Foundation calls the labor shortage “critical,” as this year alone, over half of the industry’s hiring needs will go unmet, forcing companies to hire first-time workers with minimal or no training.
“It’s tough to fill entry level positions,” said Alex Smith of Nationwide. “There’s a lack of young people with interest in the automotive industry.”
That is why this event was so valuable to all involved; it matched up interested, skilled young students looking for work in the automotive collision industry with the business owners who need to fill positions with qualified professionals.
Joe James of Bill Flannery Automotive remarked that it was “nice to see this much excitement in the industry,” and everyone at the event seemed to be in agreement.
The ACE committee is made up of representatives from 3D Auto Body & Collision, 3M, ABRA Auto Body & Glass, Bill Flannery Automotive, CARSTAR, CCC Information Services, Collision Care, Chester County Intermediate Unit, Collision Repair Education Foundation, Enterprise, Four Sons Glass and Mirror, Fred Beans, I-CAR, Innovative Solutions & Technology, Kayfield Automotive Paint, Keenan Auto Body, Kulp Car Rentals, McCafferty Auto Group, Moppert Brothers, Nationwide, PPG, Pro Spot, RW Mallon Auto Paint, WD Services, TCHS Brandywine, TCHS Pennock’s Bridge and TCHS Pickering.