Some 300 attendees gathered at the Salt Lake City Sheraton in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 21-22 to gain insight into the future of repair training at the summer Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meeting hosted by the CIC Education and Training Committee. They also had the opportunity to ask questions of training providers that participated in the "Meeting the Future Training Needs of Our Collective Industry" panel discussion.
General Motors, Chrysler, I-CAR, C-CAR, DuPont and Chief Automotive were among the providers that delivered presentations on how they will ensure that training to address rapid changes in vehicle technology is readily available to the repair community.
"I believe many repairers today are concerned that they have the necessary training available to repair these highly sophisticated vehicles," said Aaron Lofrano, F. Lofrano and Sons Collision Centers, San Francisco, Calif. "The presentations by the training entities helped me feel more comfortable that the information will stream to repairers."
Kurt Udelhok of Nationwide Insurance, who participated as one of the panelists, added, "We asked some tough questions of the OEs, I-CAR and the other presenters. We all need to ensure we have the proper training to repair today’s vehicles."
"The future is here now," said CIC Chairman Michael Quinn, co-founder of 911 Collision Centers. "Our July conference was centered on the increased need for our industry to have current, thorough repair education and information readily available to the technicians. This conversation will continue. We will delve deeper into specific technologies at the November CIC meeting in Las Vegas meeting alongside SEMA."
Other highlights of the upcoming November meeting will include:
• Parts and Materials Refinish Subcommittee discussing the accelerating drive to remove waste from the collision repair process.
• Repairer Subcommittee will present a panel discussion on whether a DEG (Database Enhancement Gateway)-style initiative could work for parts procurement issues.
• Training session on estimating procedures by the Technical Presentations Committee.
More information:
View video produced by Assured Performance Network on the need for training
