George Arrants, vice president of the ASE Education Foundation, presented a new apprenticeship pilot program during the recent ASE Training Managers Council (ATMC) conference.

Intended for high school and college automotive students, the apprenticeship pilot program puts students to work in an actual repair shop while still in school and pairs them with a trained mentor who follows a structured development plan for the student. The program was created to address the skills gap by allowing students to learn the workplace culture, build competence and increase productivity before graduation.

During the ATMC conference, several presentations were also made by ASE industry partners and the United States Air Force, highlighting the importance of training and retention of service technicians in the automotive industry.

During the conference, ATMC released the results from its annual survey on training benchmarks within the auto and heavy-vehicle service and repair industry. The survey is conducted to establish a series of metrics to help the industry recognize trends, provide a comparison standard and align the offerings of training providers with the needs of training consumers.

“In light of the trends we’re seeing when it comes to recruiting and retention within the industry, we really appreciate the opportunity to present our apprenticeship pilot program to the ATMC conference attendees,” said Mike Coley, ASE Education Foundation president. “We had some productive discussions and received feedback and ideas that will assist us as we develop and implement programs that help prepare the next generation of the automotive service workforce.”