ASA Podcast (Episode 97): The future of the automotive workforce
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas – While recently moderating the panel on the Future of the Automotive Workforce at the ASA X50 Automotive Conference & Expo, Kim Hickey raised some of the thorniest issues the auto repair industry faces in attracting, developing and keeping the technical talent needed now and for the future.
Kim Hickey
In the episode, Hickey – client fulfillment director, coach and trainer at the Automotive Training Institute – discusses topics ranging from the evolution of what it means to be an automotive technician to facing our own shortfalls in taking direct action in meeting the challenge.
In many cases, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the situation we find ourselves in today.
Hear all about it as we explore what we don’t know, what we need to change and what we need to do to ensure that we’ll have the business and technical talent we’ll all need to survive and thrive in the 21st Century.
Hear all about it as she discusses:
- How Kim got started in the automotive service industry with her own shop in Arizona and found her calling as a coach, mentor and trainer with ATI.
- How Kim personally works to train the next generation of trainers in the industry.
- Why there’s a shortage of technicians and people getting into our industry.
- What the industry is doing to address these shortages.
- Where we’re falling short in cultivating the talent we do see coming into the shop.
- How the requirements for becoming an automotive technician have evolved.
- What we need to do as an industry to help the educational system increase the supply of new technical talent.
- The biggest barriers to those thinking of entering our industry and the cost involved in education, training and tools.
- How the competition for the technical talent we need goes far beyond our own industry and who those competitors are.
- Why we’re not doing nearly enough to tell our story about how the automotive industry can offer a rewarding, secure career with opportunities for growth and advancement that remain largely unknown and unappreciated by parents and career counselors.
- For more information, you can contact Kim at khickey@autotraining.net
Tony Molla, ASA’s vice president of industry relations, hosts Episode 97 of the ASA Podcast series.
ASA PODCAST SERIES: THE EPISODES
