Pub. 4 Issue 4

25 Issue 4 2018 an important part of an auto tech’s career development, particularly as cars become more software-driven.Manufacturers such as BMW offer continuing education as a benefit of employment, but some employ- ers require techs to pay for it themselves. “In the old days, you might flip open a repair manual and look at the wiring diagram—you could fold the whole thing out on four pages,” says Ken VomSaal, a tech at a Maryland BMW dealership, as he works through a stop-start-switch problem on a BMW 7-series set up in one of the classrooms. Now, wiring diagrams are too large to print on foldouts; they’re all on the diagnostic computer. “Reading wiring diagrams now is like learning another language,” he says. Tech-school instructors and career counselors tend to blame flagging interest in automotive careers on three main fac- tors: first, the job’s age-old grease-monkey stigma; second, high-school counselors pushing four-year university degrees as the ultimate goal for most students; third, millennials’ resistance to the older gen- eration’s efforts to teach them about cars. “Hollywood hasn’t done us any favors in terms of how people view [us],” BMW’s Uyematsu says. “The auto technician is often depicted as someone who’s not the most highly educated.” But today’s vehicles contain dozens of interconnected computers, so it’s nearly impossible to repair a vehicle without hooking it up to expensive diagnostic equipment or at the very least a laptop computer. A technician still needs to know how to strip down and reassemble mechanical components without damag- ing bolt threads, warping flat surfaces, or cracking soft metal, but also how to operate and interpret these many-layered computer applications. This is what has transformed the profession into a highly technical one in which digital skills can translate into successful problem solving. It’s also made cars less accessible to do- it-yourselfers, making the need for skilled technicians all the more acute. “We’re not mechanics; we’re automo- tive technicians,” says LeBlanc, the in- dependent shop owner. “You practically need to be an I.T. guy to work on new cars. It’s gotten to the point where it’s more computer-focused than mechanical.” Tech-program staff see school counsel- ors as a stumbling block to getting more students interested in automotive careers. Terri Tchorzynski, a counselor at the Cal- houn Area Career Center in Battle Creek, Michigan, says some advisors just aren’t aware of the opportunities in the automo- tive service field. Nascent collaborations among schools, manufacturers, and the ASE should help, but it’ll take time. High-school counselors, for their part, seem to be changing their tune. Tchorzyn- ski says that many in recent years have shifted away from universally pushing four-year-university education. “When I graduated in 1997, the mentality was that to get a good job, you needed a degree,” she says. “But students who do on-the-job training with specific companies can end up making more than students who spend four years at a university.” Attracting millennials is proving to be its own challenge. Educators say this first generation to be immersed in digital tech- nology and culture from childhood has a lack of interest in cars and mechanical things, even though they would be likely to excel at the increasingly computerized aspects of the trade. Santangelo says LTI addresses the prob- lemby emphasizing soft skills—written and verbal communication, critical thinking, personal responsibility and presentation, punctuality—as well as the mechanical skills many in this generation are missing, having never tinkered with their own cars. But what if the automotive technician’s trade doesn’t catch on with millennials? The myriad diagnostic menus that the advanced students at BMW’s training center have to scroll through to trouble- shoot their classroom 7-series inspire an interesting question: Why couldn’t a robot mechanic plug a connector into a port on the side of the car, then prompt a wrench- wielding human to do the dirty work? “As far as repair shops go, we will still need people to fix brakes and suspensions and do body work,” says Bruce Belzowski, managing director of the Automotive Fu- tures group at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, “but there will probably be fewer people in- volved in diagnosis. Those who are will need a higher level of computer training.” Trish Serratore, senior vice president of the ASE, echoes the continuing need for individuals who have strong technical and diagnostic skills. “You can always get dirt, salt, and crossed wires that will give the computer a bad reading,” she says. “Then you’ll need a human to step in.” For now, though, the industry’s imme- diate need is for more technicians. To get them, manufacturers and educators are just trying to get the word out to people who like cars and technology. “I think it’s important for people to know that fixing cars is not your father’s mechanic job anymore—it’s very techni- cal and requires an ability to work with your hands and use your brain,” Serratore says. “We need to let our young people know that this is still a viable career op- tion for them.” 