Dealer Support Grows as WANADA Kicks Off 4th Year – WANADA Broadens Program to Dealers of All Brands

Dealer Support Grows as WANADA Kicks Off 4th Year

With the announcement that WANADA has opened its highly successful Technician Apprentice Training Program to dealers of all brands, a strong showing of dealership managers eagerly seeking skilled auto technician trainees turned out last week for the 4th annual kickoff meeting held at Kenwood Country Club in Bethesda.

The focus of this yearês presentation was on how this unique partnership forged between WANADA and Ford Motor Company has been refined and improved into one of the most successful auto tech apprenticeship programs in the country. Based on this success, and with Fordês approval, WANADA CEO Gerard Murphy said the decision was made to offer a –generic” version of this apprentice training to dealerships of all stripe as the next logical step to building similar relationships with other automakers, as well as meeting the critical need for qualified technicians in our industry.

–Weêre not in it to be altruistic,” he added. –Weêre in it to yield skilled techs for our dealer members. We have a proven formula that has been successful with Ford for the past three years, and we will finish the summer session with 49 technicians working in new car dealerships that weêve recruited and trained.”

Dick Snyder of Jerryês Lincoln-Mercury/Jeep, who was instrumental in gaining Fordês support for the apprentice program and directing its implementation, pointed out that the program can serve as a –national model” for manufacturers and dealers who take a long term view and want –to grow their own” qualified technicians –at a time when techs are in short supply and fixed operations are more and more important to the dealershipês profit picture.”

Snyder said that plans are underway to expand the program, which now operates at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD, and Marshall Academy in Falls Church, VA. A third facility is under development in Prince William County, VA and due to open this fall.

The Keys to Success

WANADAês –auto tech team” of Archie Avedisian, Bill Belew and Mike Wilson, EdD, explained that the success of the program is based on identifying, recruiting and screening motivated and qualified applicants for a work/study apprentice training program that meets the specific needs of dealers and manufacturers.

The program is an ideal extension of the pre-apprenticeship high school programs that WANADA has supported around the Beltway since the 1970s, many of which are now certified by NATEF and AYES. The high school programs offer an opportunity to identify young people with the right attitude and aptitude.

Belew pointed out that the WANADA program is one of only three remaining auto tech training programs sponsored by Ford, which once had a dozen such programs. –And this is the only one run by a dealer association,” he added. –We know what the dealer body is looking for and what they need.”

Belew stressed that all of the 49 apprentice trainees –will have all the training they need to do MLR [maintenance and light repair], – which is a big deal because it means they can do warranty work.” The goal of the generic program for non-Ford products dealerships will be to offer MLR as well as ASE training so at the end of the first two semesters students –can go to work and earn money for the dealership,” he added.

Belew noted that the program had produced seven or eight –A techs,” and had only one case of a trainee who jumped ship and went to another dealership. –And when that happens, or you are not happy with the progress of your apprentice trainee, we find you a replacement for free.”

–We are very happy with the program,” said Belew. –We have learned over the past three years and we have modified it, refined it, and we are going into it stronger than ever. I hope that next year we can report we have trained 100 people.”

Wilson emphasized that the curriculum, which combines ASE certification completion and manufacturer-specific training, is –alive and itês flexible based on the needs of the dealer and manufacturer. We continue to modify, streamline and improve it to make it more dealer responsive. We want that person to be able to do warranty work as quickly as possible.”

Communication among WANADA, the dealership and the trainee is also an important element of the program, and Wilson pointed out that, –We are available to be contacted at any point to work with the service director and the student.”

The plain-spoken Avedisian, who headed up Boys and Girls Clubs programs around the country for many years, is WANADAês specialist in recruiting, screening and keeping the kids on the straight and narrow. Just as important as mechanical aptitude, he says, – is somebody who wants to learn, has the ambition to be a tech, wants to go to work, is intelligent, and can get along with everybody. Iêve got a big pile of kids who were rejected because they didnêt have those qualities.”

Their high school instructors or counselors generally recommend applicants, although other good trainees have come from those already employed at dealerships and from the armed forces. They are then interviewed by Avedisian, who stresses, –It is extremely important to go to school. I tell them not going to school is the quickest way to get knocked out of the program. We donêt tolerate deadbeats, which is probably the biggest reason we are successful.”

After the interview process, WANADA checks the applicantês driving record and does a drug test. Only then is the applicant sent to the dealership for an interview with the service manager, who makes the final decision on whether or not to accept the individual.

Once hired, the WANADA team closely monitors the progress of the training and is available at any point to –take care of any problems you have or they have,” said Avedisian. –And we regularly sit down with the service director and trainee to go over pluses and minuses and issue a report card or progress report on the student.”

Because of this thorough screening and monitoring process, dealers and educators familiar with the WANADA program unanimously agree that these hand-picked WANADA apprentices are far more likely to be successful than those recruited through ads in the newspaper or picked up off the street.

WANADA is asking dealers interested in sponsoring apprentices to sign up now for students who will be placed in dealerships this May or June, and begin classroom training in September. For more information, contact Archie Avedisian, Bill Belew or Mike Wilson at WANADA, (202) 237-7200.