Competitions a route to career

High school auto repair competitions are beginning to start up around the country.

In early December, the North Texas Automobile Dealers held its third annual Auto Tech Competition at the Texas Motor Speedway.

And in mid-December, about 50 Pittsburgh-area high school students gathered at a nearby community college for an auto repair competition.

At these events and many like them across the country this school year, students can win prizes and scholarships to continue their careers and possibly land a job as a dealership technician.

With the dire shortage of technicians nationwide, competitions like these become a more important recruiting opportunity for dealerships and the industry.

"There's always been the need for technicians; I think what we've done is become more focused and better at getting the kids excited about it," says Lisa McIntyre, CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Automobile Dealers Association. "Our manufacturer partners — I'm not gonna say they make it sexy — but they do a good job of getting the kids excited about it. They talk about the career path, the wages, the opportunities available, the programs and the possibility of free schooling.

"We've gotten better at selling the dealerships as a great place to work."

At the Pittsburgh event, while students participated in the competition, their high school instructors had the chance to hear from representatives of automakers. Several years ago, the association realized the instructors spent too much time twiddling their thumbs while their students competed. That's when the decision was made to partner with some manufacturers to provide instruction the teachers could use in the classroom.

It proved beneficial to the instructors and also helped as a dealership recruiting tool.

"It's important the instructors stay on top of what the manufacturers are doing; that way they can talk about it in school," McIntyre says. "And the instructors are our best ambassadors to the students to get them into the dealerships. If they're excited about what Ford's doing, what Toyota is doing et cetera, that funnels on to the kids who they see on a daily basis. It all kind of works together to just keep these kids engaged and thinking about dealership careers."