43
Partnership between car dealership and community college prepares students for auto tech jobs
Sweeney, Stark State team up for service technician program
BOARDMAN
A partnership between a local car dealership and a community college is addressing an issue with which a number of local industries are struggling: a shortage of workers trained for skilled-trade jobs.
Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC, based on Market Street, recently started a program with Stark State College in North Canton that puts students on the path to a career as an automotive service technician.
Vice President Alexa Sweeney Blackann said the dealership and its peers noticed an emerging issue: Auto technicians were hard to find, and many current auto technicians were getting older.
“We said, ‘We have to prepare for this, or we’re not going to have anyone to work on cars,’” she said. “We wanted to grow our own technicians. There is a serious shortage.”
She attributes that to two factors – an aging auto-tech workforce, and lack of interest in the field.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, job prospects for auto techs are good, and will likely get better as those jobs grow an estimated 6 percent between 2016 and 2026.
BLS reports the median salary for auto techs and mechanics was about $40,000 in 2017. Blackann noted, however, that technicians can earn a lot more. She said some at Sweeney Chevrolet make six-figure salaries.
The dealership’s solution is to incentivize students to become auto technicians.
The program started with three students in 2016, who graduated in May. Another three will graduate next year.
Sweeney Chevrolet reimburses the students for each semester they successfully complete at Stark State in a two-year associate’s degree program.
“The key to the program is paying the students for putting in the time they spend in the classroom,” Blackann said. “That’s the only way we made this work.”
When they are not in the classroom, students spend time working in the dealership with an assigned mentor.
After graduation, students sign a three-year contract to continue working at the dealership.
This arrangement has worked out well for Drake Pondillo, 22, of New Springfield, who recently graduated from Stark State and is now working at Sweeney.
“Everything went hand-in-hand. One week, we’re learning something in school – say, brakes. Then I’d work with my mentor and I knew how to do it,” he said.
Pondillo said he always loved to work, but didn’t want to go to college – until Sweeney Chevrolet offered to pay for it.
“It’s awesome that I have a job that pays for it,” he said. “It was worth taking that time to go to school.”