Why One Educator Is Getting Elementary School Kids Into Automobile Repair

They are saying one of the best technique to get people fascinated with something is to begin them young. That is exactly what Jerry Weston Jr., a collision repair instructor in Flint, Michigan, is doing. Automotive News reports that Weston is running an afterschool program not for the high schoolers he often teaches, but children between five and 13 years old, introducing them to varied elements of the auto collision repair industry. The youngsters yearn for the shop lift. 

We already know there is a mechanic shortage. A similar shortage is looming for collision repair, an industry that is lots less visible until you suddenly need its services after a crash. The issue is not just that older employees are retiring faster than young persons are replacing them, though that is a component of it. Based on Weston, kids lately do not know one end of a screwdriver from the opposite.

“I even have to undergo a complete lesson on screwdrivers — the differing types and the right way to use them,” Weston told Automotive News. In today’s disposable culture, we replace things quite than even attempt to fix them. Many items aren’t made to be repaired, except perhaps by authorized personnel with needlessly specialized tools. For those who don’t use knowledge or skills, you are likely to lose them, and you do not pass them along to your kids. It isn’t their fault, but that does not make the issue go away, either.

At the identical time skills are declining, the collision repair industry is embracing the brand new technology that comes with modern cars. It isn’t nearly frame straightening and body repair anymore. Those are still crucial, but as cars grow to be more computerized, collision techs find themselves replacing and calibrating sensors of all types for driver assistance systems. Even an easy windshield repair has grow to be incredibly complex and expensive as a result of all of the sensors involved. 

Fortunately, young individuals who grew up with technology have an edge on using it, setting them up for fulfillment within the evolving industry. In a survey by CCC Intelligent Solutions and the Collision Repair Education Foundation, 95 percent of respondents said they’d be more fascinated with pursuing a profession in collision repair in the event that they knew it involved advanced software tools, not only a ball peen hammer.

That is where people like Weston are available in. He hopes to capture their interest early, with a hands-on approach to tasks like painting, polishing, and dent removal. Students even try some tasks, like painting, through virtual reality. From Automotive News: 

“It’s one thing to inform someone what painting is,” Weston said. “But when I can put a headset on a student and allow them to actually do it — without the fumes or the price of materials — that basically gets them excited.”

Enabling students to try these repairs, virtually or otherwise, shows them what the work involves, in addition to explaining the high-tech elements of the job. Those of us who work on our own cars already understand the satisfaction it gives us. Weston tries to share this along with his students, hoping that by finding tasks they’re good at and luxuriate in, they may even pursue a profession doing it sooner or later.

For years, we have been told that college is The One True Way. Nevertheless, with so many individuals drowning in student debt and struggling to seek out and keep a job lately, more of today’s students appear to be seeing through this lie. The CCC Intelligent Solutions and the Collision Repair Education Foundation survey also showed that 77 percent of respondents wish they’d known earlier about other profession paths than a typical four-year college degree. Additionally they see collision repair as regular, financially promising work with potential for advancement. That is greater than many college graduates have lately, unable to seek out work of their fields and taking whatever jobs they’ll find to get by.

A university education is actually not a nasty thing. Someone has to engineer the cars we drive, and that takes highly specialized knowledge. But college shouldn’t be a “one size suits all” solution, either. That belief has led to employee shortages in all of the trades, not only automotive ones.