Automotive Instructors: The Key Component in Advanced Technology Technician Training (Editorial)

To ensure that there will be trained automotive technicians to service HEV, PHEV, EREV, and BEV (e.g., Advanced Technology vehicles) Automotive Instructors play the pivotal role in developing these technicians.  Prior to instructing any automotive topic, instructors should receive professional training and develop experiences that can be transferred to their students.  With degrees already brimming with traditional automotive courses, instructors are finding it extremely difficult to determine how Advanced Technology vehicle information will be inserted into a structure that cannot accommodate additional courses.  Additionally, college level administrators may not see a need to include the necessary courses to automotive degrees and certificates that properly prepare the students to analyze, diagnose, and repair vehicles with high voltage electric drive systems, battery packs, electric air conditioning compressors, etc.  There are college administrators that have tried to solve this problem by offering adjunct 1-year certificate programs that permit students to continue with their automotive studies for a 3rd year.  However, students quickly realize that, because the extra year of training in the Advanced Technologies is not a component of their 2-year degree program, they cannot acquire financial aid to help defray the educational costs until after graduation.  Therefore, there are multiple issues in offering Advanced Technology vehicle training to the students, even if they desire it. 

A more pressing issue involves automotive instructor training.  If colleges aren’t supporting the addition of Advanced Technology education as a part of their automotive programs then, it may be difficult for automotive instructors to acquire support from their administration to attend qualified professional training. The concern is real – with the production of Advanced Technology vehicles accelerating at exponential speed and instructors not receiving qualified training then, how will the next generation of technicians be trained to fundamentally learn the knowledge and skills necessary to diagnose and repair Advanced Technology products? 
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For those colleges that do not include or offer this training, private sector companies,have already developed the training products, tools, and equipment for field technicians and can easily begin to integrate college level students into these Advanced Technology vehicle courses.   

Author

Dr. Mark Quarto
CTO, FutureTech Auto
Partner to AVTGNW