WANADA/Ford Tech Training Program Dedication

Media and Top Officials Turn Out for WANADA/Ford Tech Training Program Dedication Ford Donates $1 Million to Two Training Centers

This unique partnership demonstrates how the private sector, community organizations and the government can come together to achieve a winning result for everyone involved including students, local municipalities, our dealers and Ford Motor Company, said Frank Ligon, director Vehicle Service and Programs, Ford Customer Service Division, at a dedication ceremony and media briefing for the WANADA/Ford Apprenticeship Technician Training Program. The ceremony was held at Marshall Academy in Falls Church, VA, May 31, and attended by public policy makers at federal, state, and local levels as well as school and business leaders.

Concluding its first year in the Washington DC area, the program operates at two locations Marshall Academy and Montgomery College (MC) in Rockville, MD to train youths and young adults in automotive repair techniques of the 21st century. The programs represent a unique collaborative effort among the two schools; Ford Motor Company; WANADA; the Washington, D.C. Department of Employment Services, and any number of pre-apprentice programs functioning through local school systems operating around the Beltway.

The students get the opportunity to have a career, not just a job and the encouragement to make productive life choices, said Ligon. The schools get state-of-the-art Ford diagnostic equipment and tools that students can use for training. And our Washington, D.C. area Ford Motor Company dealers get a stream of well-trained prospective employees to meet the demand for entry-level service technicians.

Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech called the program an exciting opportunity for our auto technology students to learn the skills necessary to be a master certified automotive technician. Other key contributors to the program include Patrick Devlin, technology director at Montgomery College; and Jeff McFarland, trade and industry coordinator for the Fairfax County School District.

Ford Motor Company will provide a total of $l million over three years for the programs including cash, vehicles, tools and equipment, instructor training, components and facility improvements. The training program, designed to provide broad-based automotive systems knowledge, consists of two distinct initiatives. The Ford Maintenance and Light Repair curriculum provides the foundation for the first nine to 12 months. Students are trained in a simulated quick-repair classroom environment, learning such things as repair of brake, electrical, suspension and climate-control systems, as well as basic maintenance, such as oil changes.

During months 13 through 30, the students receive in-depth instruction in the areas of engine repair, engine performance and automatic transmission repair through an apprentice program designed by WANADA and participating Ford product dealerships, which reinforce classroom curricula through on-site paid co-op work programs.

In addition to college credits, graduates of the program will receive a Ford Maintenance and Light Repair Certificate equal to 20 percent of the credentials needed for master technician certification. Graduates are also eligible to receive professional certification through the Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) accrediting service.

These classes are designed to provide a solid educational foundation that will help enable our graduates to find relevant, long-term employment, said Vince Sheehy, chairman of WANADA. The dealers also will work to help students discover their true interests in the industry.

Ford and WANADA have developed a single industry approach to apprentice training to respond to the technician shortage in our business, said Dick Snyder of Jerry’s Lincoln Mercury/Jeep, chairman of the project for WANADA. What we are doing is home growing the next generation of techs, supplying them with state-of-the-art factory training, supported by dealer community commitment,” he said.

Summing it up, Duane Roundtree, who helped spearhead the program as strategy manager for Fordês Automotive Consumer Service Groupês Youth and Adult Automotive Training Program, said, The Ford/WANADA program is the best in the country, and we use it as an example of how an effective technician training should be run. Roundtree will soon be shifting to an international assignment for Ford, and his replacement will be Lee M. Cork.

A second class of apprentices is being recruited from dealer-sponsored pre-apprentice high school programs in the Washington area to include the Montgomery County Public Schools ACT program, the Fairfax Applied Technical Education Program and the Prince Georgeês Student Auto Sales project.

A special program also is in place with the DC Phelps Career Center and the DC Department of Employment Services where young adults are being recruited both for the Ford/WANADA program and a new technician support-training program.

Steuart Martens of Martens Cars of Washington, a Volvo-VW dealer, is so enthusiastic he donated $500 to the program, and encourages more Ford product dealers to support the program.

For more information on the program, contact Mike Wilson, Archie Avedisian or Bill Belew at WANADA, (202) 237 7200.