SHOP FEATURE
The The pandemic has pushed automotive learning onto the Internet. Trainers say that is both good and bad.
C
of training By Allan Janssen
alifornia-based technical trainer Mike Cleary was all set to come to Vancouver for a Powerstroke Diesel class in the last week of March. The technical class had been scheduled for months, and a good turnout was expected. But around the middle of March, he started to wonder if it would happen. People were starting to voice concerns about coronavirus. By the third week of March, there were some cancellations. Then his hosts started wondering if it was a good idea to proceed. “I could see the handwriting on the wall,” he says. “There were still people saying, ‘Don’t worry about it. Everything will be fine.’ But I decided to err on the side of caution.” Shortly after he cancelled the course, the Canada-U.S. border was shut down, and it’s still closed as of this writing. Mark Lemay, owner of Auto Aide, a training operation based in Barrie, Ont., had a very similar experience. “Around the second week of March I realized this coronavirus thing was going to be a big deal. We were keeping our eye on it,” he says. “In the third week of March, everyone starting cancelling. We usually run to the middle of June with training. This year it all dried up in March.” Throughout North America, automotive trainers have had to adopt new strategies to keep their businesses running. As the pandemic lingers, they’re starting to wonder
if these changes will be permanent ones. “It’s not like we can just stop training,” says Mike Bailey, a partner at The Auto Prof, an Ontario-based training company that specializes in new technology. “Training is so important to the health of the industry.” He says the pandemic comes just as a lot of service shops are coming to terms with their need to master advanced vehicle diagnostics. “Technicians are hungry for higher level training and hands-on learning,” he says. “Those who are thinking about their futures in this industry have a vested interest in it. They want to do it. They like to do it. It's part of their personality to pursue it.” To keep the classes flowing, many trainers have resorted to webinars. In fact, it may be fair to say that many
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