John Van Alstyne, CEO and president of I-CAR, and Clark Plucinski, executive director of the Collision Repair Education Foundation, joined North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and other collision repair industry leaders on Feb. 4 for the grand opening ceremony of the new two-year collision repair program at Fayetteville (N.C.) Technical Community College (FTCC). The I-CAR Professional Development Program – Education Edition (PDP-EE) is the foundation curriculum for the school, which represents an innovative model of what the future of collision repair education could and should be.

“I-CAR is thrilled that PDP-EE is the foundation curriculum for FTCC,” said Bill Stage, I-CAR senior director, Segment Development – Education & International. “Today, 323 schools are now using PDP-EE, which has exceeded our expectations. It is clear that PDP-EE is adding value to career and technical school collision repair programs. The industry has also validated the value of the program through its hiring of PDP-EE Platinum graduates.”

The PDP-EE is based on the same industry-facing training curriculum that I-CAR launched in the collision repair industry in 2010. PDP training is role-based, building knowledge progressively, and is the basis for I-CAR’s Platinum and Gold Class programs. I-CAR states that schools that use PDP-EE have the latest collision repair educational curriculum and are able to graduate properly trained students who are in-demand by the industry for entry-level positions.

Van Alstyne stated, “I-CAR is pleased to be working with the Collision Repair Education Foundation in the development and launch of the FTCC program. The program is an interesting model of industry, government and education collaboration that will successfully transition qualified returning U.S. veterans from military careers to collision repair industry careers. This helps address the needs our industry has for qualified talent and serves as a model for the future of education and industry collaboration.”