Today’s vehicles aren’t necessarily going be enough to attract young people into this industry and so a different kind of approach is needed, a shop coach recently advised.
Rather than trying to rely on young people developing a passion for automotive repair on their own, explain to them—and their parents—that a career in the trade is viable and stable while showing them just how they can be successful.
As the automotive industry grapples with attracting new talent, Jeff Furrow, owner of Wellsboro Automotive, addressed the challenges and solutions during a training session on apprenticeships at the Worldpac Supplier and Training Expo.
He highlighted the disconnect young people feel with modern vehicles compared to older generations and emphasized the need for structured career plans to draw them into the trade.
What’s shifted young people from coming to work on cars? Furrow suggested looking at what’s in a school parking lot.
Older generations had hot rods, Camaros or Mustangs that were easier to understand once you popped the hood.
“We worked on him at night, on weekends. But we can do that ourselves — we have the tools, we can find the knowledge,” he said.
Today, however, the complexity of new vehicles like the modern-day Mustang or offerings from Lexus, Tesla and BMW makes them inaccessible for DIY enthusiasts.
“They can’t work on this. There’s no way they can work on them,” Furrow explained. “So how do they fall in love with something they can’t do? How can they fall in love with an industry when they’re not able to be a part of it?”
So it means taking a different approach with young kids and their families. He offered a blueprint to show that there’s a viable, structured career path in auto care. By providing a clear plan the industry can begin to attract and retain the next generation of automotive technicians, he said.
Furrow noted that many parents are focused on the four-year university path without a clear plan, but they feel that a piece of paper after that time is nevertheless worthwhile. Suppose you go to those parents with a specific career path that you’ve created for their child that shows how they will progress and the career they will have once they get the education and training. In that case, you’re making a real difference to attract young people to the automotive service trade.
“Once I told them, ‘I have a plan for your child,’ they started listening to us,” Furrow said. He stressed that the plan must demonstrate structure and a real pathway to a career, and it must be in writing.
Luke Murray, a Worldpac Training Institute instructor, agreed.
“The attrition rate is terrible,” he said in the same session. “And when polled why [apprentices] left, the top two reasons [were] lack of a mentor … and lack of a career path.”
Leave a Reply