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Letter to the Editor

Mentors At Work Launches Outsourced Apprenticeship Management Program

According to Mark Claypool, President and CEO of Mentors At Work, “Shop managers have lots of things on their plates. Adding additional responsibilities, like the challenging duties associated with recruiting and workforce development, often get pushed to the back burner. As a result, they often take the easy way out and hire only experienced techs.”

“Recognizing this, our research led us to the conclusion that many of the shops that truly understand the importance of developing new talent in this industry are willing to outsource the management of an in-house apprenticeship program to meet their needs,” added Claypool. “For a lot of shops, outsourcing the management of an apprenticeship program is the only way they’ll take on this challenge because they have so many other things to concentrate on.”

The “We’ll Mange It!” program is an enhancement to the Mentors At Work on-line apprenticeship system. In addition to the on-line task list and tracking system, with “We’ll Manage It!” a shop can affordably turn over the on-going management of the system to highly skilled and trained Mentors At Work staff who specialize in apprenticeships and interpersonal relations.

With “We’ll Manage It!”, Mentors At Work provides initial one-on-one mentor training and apprentice orientation, then touches base with mentors and apprentices every other week to check progress, set goals and deal with any issue that may have come up. Brief reports of these bi-weekly meetings are issued to shop management to keep them in the loop. Also a part of the “We’ll Manage It!” enhancement is a series of on-site, in-depth analysis sessions where mentors and apprentices are observed in action, evaluated and given on-going training to build upon their skills as instructor and trainee.

“For an apprenticeship program to work, the right people need to be selected as mentors, who, in turn need to be trained to be good instructors. Mentors need to work and teach at the same time in a production environment, and the program must be managed,” said Claypool. “More often than not, most shops link an experienced person in the shop with a new hire and simply hope it works out and do little to help manage the success of the process. That’s why our industry has struggled so much with entry-level employment. “We’ll Manage It!” removes the final barrier to establishing a full-fledged apprenticeship system in automotive shops and can assist the industry in addressing the critical need of workforce development.”

According to Chris Noll, manager of Village Collision in Brookline, MA, "Getting good help has always been a problem, especially since fewer technicians are joining the industry. It's very difficult to develop your own program for training new employees. We've been trying to put something together that works for years. Mentors At Work gives you all the tools you need and provides you with a roadmap to get your employees trained and accelerate the learning curve."

Mentors At Work can be found on the Internet at www.mentorsatwork.com. Additional info may be requested by calling 630-762-0614 or via e-mail, info@mentorsatwork.com.

Mentors At Work, founded in 2001 after 18 months of research and development, provides automotive repair and collision shops with a full plan for shop implementation of an apprenticeship system, complete with attracting, training, retaining and tracking components.

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