International Stage - Collision Repair Magazine

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Volume 6

Issue 1

International Stage

Written by Don treschak

Saturday, 17 March 2007

The world is coming to Calgary. Will we be ready? The world is coming to Canada in 2009, when the city of Calgary will host the World Skills Competition. Held every two years, this is a huge event that brings together competitors in trades as diverse as bricklayers, bakers and candlestick makers.
The competitions that we’re interested in are of course Autobody Repair and the Automotive painting competitions. The top apprentices in our field will be converging on Calgary in just two short years. How will we stack up?
I don’t think that I’m alone in wanting my industry and my country to do well on the international stage. Unfortunately wanting something and getting it are worlds apart. To get there we must take action.
We have just two years to encourage as many young people as possible to choose collision repair as a career choice. We also have to put in place a Canada wide selection process for automotive painting. If we do this, Canada will truly be represented by the best, and everyone will have an equal chance to compete. My first challenge to you is to get involved. Together we can make this happen!
There are some obvious benefits to this that have nothing to do with skills competitions. We all know that the collision repair industry desperately needs an influx of new workers.
The solution is to find students that want to learn more about collision repair, and then to mentor them and nurture their talent.
If your son or daughter came home and stated that they got a job working steady days and earning $40,000 per year, I am sure you would be happy. Is that not the type of jobs we offer in collision shops today?
So I’m issuing yet another challenge to our industry. When you get a high school student in your shop on a work experience program, don’t just send him or her for coffee.

golden opportunity
Having a high school student actually choose collision repair as a work placement or co-op program is a golden opportunity. A teenager seeking this sort of placement is obviously already interested in cars, and hasn’t been brainwashed by negative and outdated stereotypes of our industry.
Who knows? Perhaps the enthusiastic student of today will be the assistant manager of your shop, or an estimator, or a collision repair person in a few years. But if their only exposure to the business is sweeping floors, don’t be surprised when their initial enthusiasm gutters and dies.
Sure, the students coming in to your shop are going to be inexperienced, and you can’t have them repairing and painting customer’s cars. But what about the fender that had to replaced on that 2005 Acura that came in last week? Let them straighten it, prime it, sand it, and paint it. Let them take it home to show their parents or even hang up at school. At the very least they will know that our industry isn’t just about fetching coffee.
Our country’s auto shop teachers are our allies in this. Most of them are passionate about their work and dedicated to their students.
To give just one example, I would like to relate a story about Ron Postma. Ron teaches at Robert Bateman Secondary School in Burlington, ON. By singling out Ron, I don’t mean to slight any of the other fine teachers that I know who are just as dedicated. I mention Ron because he was the first who popped into my head.
I got an e-mail from Ron in between Christmas and New Year’s, looking for a job placement for one of his students. I called him up, mainly because I wanted to know what he was doing at the school during Christmas Break. It turned out that some of his students had projects they wanted to finish, and he had opened the shop so they could do so.
Not only does this show an incredible dedication on Ron’s part, it shows that these students have undeniable enthusiasm for the automotive trades.
That sort of passion can’t be trained, it can’t be given, and it can’t be bought. But it can be killed as dead as disco by giving them a floor to sweep when what they want is to learn about your business.
If we start encouraging students now, then when 2009 rolls around we can really show the rest of the world that Canada is a place where the trades flourish and skilled work is appreciated.

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