I-CAR Education Foundation Announces New Training Initiative

(Rolling Meadows, IL) The I-CAR Education Foundation, celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2001, announced a new training initiative at NACE in Las Vegas, Nevada. The initiative will be called PACE+ST3, for People Actively Creating Employability thru Short-Term Task Training. The selection of this name builds on the PACE program, funded by State Farm and developed by the Foundation in 1997.

Don Askew, chairman of the Education Foundation board of trustees, stated, "During its first ten years, the Foundation focused on funding and developing products and services to support the recruitment and training of secondary and post-secondary students to prepare them for employment in the collision industry. The most noted product is the ADVANCE-TECH curriculum, utilized by a majority of the collision repair training programs."

As the Foundation begins its second decade, the focus will shift to a more active role in ensuring that shop owners can hire entry-level employees that can perform to their expectations. Those entry-level expectations of tasks that an employee can perform have been consistent through three surveys conducted by the Foundation in 1995, 1998 and 2001. As reported in the Executive Summary of the "Snapshot of the Collision Industry," most shop owners expect an entry-level employee who was trained in a pre-employment program to be able to R&R bolted parts, prep for paint, final detailing and dent repairs. These tasks rate high, versus ones such as electrical, suspension and structural repairs.

After a review of the NATEF Task List, fifty-nine detailed tasks were selected that a student should learn, to prepare them to perform to the entry-level expectations of an employer. An example of one of the tasks would be "inspect, remove, replace, and align hood, hood hinges, and hood latch."

The Foundation will provide the seed money to launch the PACE+ST3 initiative, providing curriculum, student support materials, and other services to help facilitate the learning of the fifty-nine tasks in a competency-based learning environment. Sharon Merwin, vice-chair of the Foundation board of trustees, also chairs the committee that has spearheaded the PACE+ST3 initiative. Ronald Ray, executive director of the Education Foundation, stated "It is important that the student feels confident in his or her ability to perform these selected tasks in a competent manner before seeking employment. This confidence level can only be obtained if the student must learn, practice and perform the task at the pre-employment stage." Schools that participate in PACE+ST3 must track the students that they will assist in seeking employment, also recruiting local shop owners to actively participate on the program’s advisory committee. Students that participate will be able to seek employment with PACE credentials, outlining the tasks that they have learned, and why. In addition, if the school is ASE certified to the NATEF standards, the student will receive an I-CAR transcript and two I-CAR Gold Class points, earned for some of the training that equates to the I-CAR Detailing course. This credit is earned through the Industry Training Alliance, with new application for pre-employment training.

PACE+ST3 is currently being validated in two schools. Instructors Greg Gambrel of Walker Career Center in Indianapolis, Indiana and Kim Beck of Brewer High School in Somerville, Alabama assisted the Foundation with the development of the initiative. Both instructors have students that will be working this summer between their junior and senior year in local shops. One of those shops is ACE Auto Body in Hartselle, Alabama, owned by Freda and Myron Thompson. Freda, a Foundation board member, immediately volunteered to validate the initiative in her local high school, Brewer, when she learned about the program. Thompson stated, "I look forward to employing a student that has learned these tasks in Kim’s class. These tasks certainly meet and exceed our expectations of an entry-level employee."

Schools interested in participating in the PACE+ST3 initiative should contact the Education Foundation. In addition, the Foundation is seeking additional sponsorship for the program from business and industry so the program can grow and prosper.

The I-CAR Education Foundation, founded in 1991, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of entry-level employees for the collision industry.