| Fall 2000 | |
Congratulations Richard White!You have been awarded the Council of Advanced Automotive Trainer's Grand Award “Trainer of the Year” 2000. |
|
 |
CAAT awarded the trainer who had the best performance in CAAT’s Quality Assurance Program. The criteria for the award came from CAAT’s Quality Assurance Program that looks for quantity and quality of training. The Student Information and Training Evaluation Forms that Richard reported to CAAT placed him as the recipient for this year's award. CAAT’s Quality Assurance Program showed very clearly that his students have increased their knowledge, as well as enjoyed the learning experience that Richard delivered. |
| Tom Mettner presented Richard the award at CAAT’s annual meeting on Wednesday, November 1, at the Sands Convention Center. Richard’s students commented that Richard was very helpful in teaching the students procedures that are right or wrong. They wrote that he has very good sense of humor, easy to talk to, and always keeps their attention. On a random tally of training evaluations, Richard took these students from an average pretest score of 53% and raised them to an overall average final score of 87%. | |
|
|
 |
The iˇSHOP standards from AAIA are the product of a cooperative effort between Snap-on and the members of the Enterprise Alliance. Shop Integration Standards enable PC-based diagnostic and repair equipment and information servers to share information about the customer, vehicle, work order, service and repair information, as well as parts and labor information seamlessly throughout the service environment. |
The Shop Integration Task Force has been meeting regularly since September 1999 to draft a technical specification that equipment manufacturers and software developers can engineer into their products to ensure plug-n-play connectivity with other compliant equipment and systems. Fortunately there’s good news ahead for consumers and shop owners alike. The advent of industry-wide standards for the integration of computerized shop equipment promises to revolutionize the entire process. In an integrated repair shop, all the PC-based systems and equipment can “talk to each other” and share what they already know about the customer, the vehicle, and the service work being performed. The integrated repair shop is certainly the wave of the future and will take advantage of technology standards developed by the Electronic Commerce Committee of AAIA. Up until this point there was simply no standard interface language that enabled disparate pieces of PC-based equipment to communicate with one another. In an integrated shop environment, all the information needed to complete a repair can be accessed from any of the machines on the shop floor. “Shop owners expect to have freedom to choose the best equipment for their needs without regard for interconnectivity or compatibility with their other equipment. The old model of proprietary technology built around closed systems is no longer valid, and shop equipment makers have found open standards as the best way to serve the customer,” said Scott Luckett, director of information technology for AAIA. |
|
|
|
Words from CAAT’s President,Tom Mettner |
|
 |
For those of you who were unable to attend the 5th annual meeting of the
Council of Advanced Automotive Trainers in Las Vegas, I want to share with you information
from that meeting. We all know that there is a huge need for technician training, and as trainers most of us agree that we are still having trouble getting technicians to attend classes. |
| I can see that, as an organization of trainers, we are beginning to make
inroads toward a solution to that never-ending story. CAAT is the coming together of
incredibly talented people who have had many years of experience in the automotive
industry. They have joined this organization for the purpose of overcoming this problem,
the problem that the auto industry has been talking about for many years: technician
training and the lack of it. The problem stems from whether the technician, or shop owner who would send a technician to training, feels confident that the technician will improve from this course. Is the course information up to date? Is the instructor competent? And will I get my return on the investment of time and money? Individually, each CAAT trainer has tremendous credibility with the people they train in their local area, but together as an organization, following a code of standards, we can gain national recognition that will encourage technicians and shop owners to have confidence in our training and fill the seats. Here’s what’s happening to promote CAAT Trainers! Last spring CAAT was represented on a STS panel meeting at the SAE conference in Detroit. On the panel I represented CAAT. Other people on the panel included Mark Warren, Jorge Menchu and Jerry Truglia, also CAAT members! I recently attended the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) Education committee in Toronto representing CAAT. AAIA launched an initiative for improving training efforts in the aftermarket repair industry. This “Tech Training Coordination Task Force” met October 30. Some of the participants of the Task Force were from Dana, Federal Mogul, Standard Motor Products, Delphi, ASE, Bosch, aTs, and CAAT. On Oct. 10, I represented CAAT on a panel with ASE, Delphi, Snap-on, and AC Delco. The panel was asked to inform the Automotive Sales Council (ASC) as to future of technician training. ASC is made up of 100 executives from automotive manufacturing. This was a great forum to inform many people what CAAT was all about. The recent changes in the automotive industry have positioned CAAT and its members to benefit. The many years of dedication and support of building the organization are beginning to pay off. Many more meetings have been scheduled to discuss the problem of the lack of qualified technicians and the need for training. I will continue to work toward ways, to fill the seats! |
|
|
|
aTs Talks about CAAT Training Opportunities |
|
 |
Denny Hershey President of Automotive Technical Service stated he was happy to be a business partner of CAAT. He explained to the CAAT trainers in Las Vegas that aTs’s job was to promote and fulfill national training contracts using CAAT trainers exclusively. “We feel we have to pay well and pay in a timely matter if we expect to provide high quality training,” Denny stated. He went on to review some of the national accounts aTs is working with. On the parts side they are the approved training supplier for Parts Plus, Pronto, and Ampere. OTC has put a lot of CAAT trainers to work through their distribution like NAPA, MAC Tools, and Matco. |
|
|
Motor Assurance Program a Must for Trainers to Train |
|
 |
Larry Hecker, President of the Motor Assurance Program explains the Uniform Inspection Communication Standards, how they were created, and how they are put into place at the shop level. “Approval by the technicians and service writers is a key element of implementing the standards,” said Larry. “That’s why its important for trainers to be knowledgeable and to incorporate the standards into their training materials.” For more information on MAP, call 202-712-9042 or www.motorist.org |
