In recognition of National Skilled Trades Day, celebrated on the first Wednesday in May each year, General Motors Customer Care and Aftersales (CCA) is recognizing the vital role that the more than 40,000 skilled auto technicians across GM dealerships bring to the GM owner experience.

Through Bring Us Your Talent, GM’s marketing initiative to help GM dealers recruit and train new talent to fill the technician gap, unique career stories and journeys will be shared across several GM platforms including:

• The Future of Automotive Talent: A video highlighting GM Automotive Service Educational Program (ASEP) students sharing their journeys with Dale Earnhardt Jr., who knows firsthand the importance of under-the-hood expertise.
• What GM-Certified Automotive Technicians are Saying: Stories from automotive technicians at all levels on why they chose their career path, life on the job, advancement and more.

These stories, along with information on pursuing career opportunities as an automotive technician at a GM dealer through GM ASEP, are live on BringUsYourTalent.com. GM brand social channels will also be featuring content honoring the experts who help keep us on the road.

“With the progression of automotive technologies and the shift to electric vehicles, there is an ever-growing demand for skilled technician talent,” said John Roth, GM global vice president, Customer Care and Aftersales. “Not just today, but every day, we appreciate our dealership technicians who bring us their skills and continue to advance their training to take care of our customers.”

Bring Us Your Talent launched in May 2021 to coincide with National Skilled Trades Day and targets potential talent with educational content on automotive technician career opportunities. The initiative also provides marketing and advertising assets to dealerships to help them drive technician recruitment and industry awareness in their markets.

These efforts have helped to attract and build a pipeline of talent — enrollment in the 51 ASEP schools across the U.S. is the highest it has been in 10 years.

ASEP

Today’s technician role has evolved into a highly technical career which continues to be redefined as the industry undergoes one of the largest transformations to date.

GM’s ASEP training is a two-year program and includes a mix of in-classroom instruction, hands-on training and paid internships that are available to students. The program works to pair students in the ASEP programs with automotive dealer sponsors who employ students to provide training, while building their talent pipeline.  

Recognizing Current Talent

GM is committed to also helping dealerships retain their talented technicians. In 2022, the GM Technician Excellence Program was introduced to recognize dealership technicians who continue to expand their knowledge through a mix of virtual and hands-on training all year long.

By meeting set training criteria, select technicians can work toward various levels of certification and may be eligible for quarterly rewards. In 2022, there were 28,633 dealership technicians enrolled in the program and 10,981 of them qualified for a reward across three certification levels.

“A career as an automotive technician is rewarding, inspiring and continually advancing,” said Roth. “We are continually working to increase consideration of these careers and support the talent that has chosen this as their path.”