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Letter to the Editor
August 2002 Issue of INSIGHT
I-CAR: Things are Looking Up
Attendance up at annual I-CAR meeting and changes are being faced with enthusiasm
As I-CAR staff, volunteers and instructors met in Salt Lake City, Utah, last month for the training organization's annual meeting, there was a sense of a renewed energy and enthusiasm among participants. Attendance at the event was up significantly, the organization's financial report was dramatically improved, a new top executive - one with more than a decade of experience with I-CAR - was at the helm, and the nearly universal opinion voiced by attendees was that things were "looking up" for I-CAR's technical training in the collision industry.
"We now have the right people, the right products and the right programs to meet I-CAR's future challenges," outgoing board chairman Roger Foss of Toyota said at the meeting.
The perceived turn-around for the organization cannot come soon enough if INSIGHT's recent polling of shop owners is any indication.
"It seems as though I-CAR isn't really addressing the industry's needs with the proper kind of training," Todd Miller, owner of Eastside Auto Rebuild in Bellevue, Wash., said.
"My shop was among the first to achieve Gold Class status with all of its empty promises," Mark Beckstedt, owner of 1469 Auto Body in Fort Wayne, Indiana, said. "I have not renewed my participation."
Survey says...
INSIGHT found that among shops of virtually all sizes, one to three percent of the shop's revenues were spent on training last year. Most reported that this percentage increased last year over the preceding year, and the vast majority expected this year's training budget to hold steady at that higher percentage rather than to decline.
As it has in each of the past three years, INSIGHT also asked shops to rate their satisfaction (on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 indicating they were extremely satisfied) with the availability, convenience, usefulness and cost of I-CAR training. Average scores for all four aspects have steadily declined since INSIGHT's first such survey in 1999. The average overall satisfaction score in 2002 was 2.47, down from 2.76 in 1999.
Interestingly enough, dissatisfaction with one aspect of I-CAR training - the cost, for example - doesn't always translate into dissatisfaction overall. Beckstedt, for example, ex-pressed frustration because a shop that achieves Gold Class status has to pay for the distinction over and above the cost of the classes, but overall felt I-CAR training has improved and that it is a better value today.
Indeed, more than 50 percent of the shops INSIGHT surveyed have earned the Gold Class distinction, but the program seemed to be among the aspects of I-CAR drawing the most derision.
"There's not much value to it; it's seldom recognized by our trading partners," March Taylor of Auto Body Hawaii said. "It's very difficult to maintain Gold Class status, and our competitors for DRPs are seldom certified - yet it makes no difference to insurers."
As part of its regrouping effort over the past year, I-CAR commissioned its own national survey of all segments of the collision industry. Compilation of data from the more than 700 written or phone surveys is expected to be completed this month. At the annual meeting, though, I-CAR did release some preliminary findings based on as-yet incomplete data:
- More than 90 percent of shop owners and technicians expressed agreement with the statement that I-CAR courses "contain the latest industry information," and more than 80 percent agreed that "I-CAR courses help you perform your job better."
- Shop owners/managers were more likely than technicians to say the training improves their technical skills; about 70 percent of technicians agreed with the statement, compared to more than 80 percent of shop owners/managers.
- One in four shop owners/managers said I-CAR course material is too basic and needs to be more advanced; almost twice as many technicians expressed this view.
- More than half of technicians and shop owners/managers said the courses need more hands-on exercises; it's unclear how many of those respondents, however, have taken the more recently developed "Enhanced Delivery" I-CAR courses, which include more of these types of exercises.
Where to go from here
Tom McGee's first involvement with I-CAR was as one of the many volunteers the organization relies on to organize, promote or instruct its courses. (I-CAR instructors do receive token compensation - $10 per student per course this coming year, a $1 increase.) Earlier this year, after his more than a dozen years working at and then leading I-CAR's Tech Centre in Appleton, Wisc., McGee was named I-CAR Executive Vice President and CEO, succeeding Tom Mack. The choice of McGee - and his vision for I-CAR's future - has drawn praise from many I-CAR supporters who view him as "one of their own."
"It's really a love of the organization, whether you're a board member, a staff member, an instructor or a volunteer, that really has made this organization what it is, and what we're going to do now, is bring that back," McGee pledged at the annual meeting.
In addition to simplification of paperwork and internal processes to help I-CAR instructors and volunteer committees, McGee offered the following as among his plans for improving the value and perception of I-CAR within the industry:
- There will be no price increase for I-CAR training during the next year.
- I-CAR is continuing to research alternative methods for delivering training rather than just through instructor-led classroom settings. Satellite and online training are among the alternatives that McGee said could likely expand the availability of I-CAR training while classroom training would still be offered.
- I-CAR will continue to develop new courses to keep up with technology changes, McGee said; the on-going move toward modularization of I-CAR classes will allow students to take only such new courses without having to sit through longer series of classes just to get a small amount of new material. McGee said he sees the need for classes on structural foams, and repairs on full-frame vehicles. Other forthcoming hands-on qualification tests, similar to those I-CAR now offers in welding, will cover refinishing and structural parts sectioning.
- More than 5,000 people now subscribe to I-CAR's free e-mail newsletter, and the organization now offers its ongoing "Advantage" technical articles free of charge via the Internet.
- More companies and organizations will join the ten that are now part of the Industry Training Alliance. Those who attend training offered by the paint companies and others that are part of the Alliance can receive Gold Class credits for a small fee without having to also pay for and attend comparable I-CAR training programs.
- One such source of Gold Class points in the future may be ASE certification, McGee hinted. "There is a commitment at all levels of ASE and I-CAR to develop a program that will incorporate ASE into the Training Alliance in a manner that will benefit this industry," McGee said.
- The Gold Class program, McGee admitted, "will be far more successful if we can get some brand identity, particularly down to the consumer, and we're working on ways we can do that."
Walking the walk
McGee appeared to have won the confidence of the majority of the more than 500 people (the most since 1996) attending I-CAR's annual meeting. That support among I-CAR instructors and volunteers will be vital as the training organization works to rebuild its somewhat beleaguered industry image and make its investments in new training technology, in its own state-of-the-art Tech Centre, and in new internal systems.
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