Posted by Buzzman72 on March 21, 2009 at 09:59:44 from (4.253.116.90):
I've known about this for several months, but I haven't thought to comment here. The IVY Tech Community College in Sellersburg, IN will be closing its Automotive Technology department in January. Here at a time when we're needing more folks who know what they're doing with these new cars, this school is cutting out the program. When I took classes ther, we used to joke that the only way the program might get any positive notice from the administration on the main campus was if we auto tech students started hanging stethescopes around our necks.
If you look in the Help Wanted ads, the only positions auto dealers are hiring for are car salesmen [because the "usual" response when cars aren't selling is to hire more salespeople] and mechanics/technicians.
The dealership techs I've talked to recently have all said that GM, Ford, and Chrysler have all cut back on THEIR training budgets, so getting a GOOD class with hands-on training is becoming more and more rare, even on the dealer level.
So exactly WHO is going to train our next generation of auto technicians? These days, you can't properly service an air conditioning system without knowing the electronics involved...much less an antilock brake system. Sure, there'll always be jobs for the sledgehammer mechanics changing tires and replacing exhaust systems...but even the tires have electronic pressure-monitoring devices these days which are easily damaged by improperly-trained folks.
It's MY opinion--and that, plus about three bucks, will get you a small mocha "premium coffee" at Mickey Dees these days--that the folks in Indnana's higher-education departments should pull their collective heads out of their azzez and help MORE people learn a trade, not FEWER. According to my contacts who are still teaching there, all the IVY Tech automotive classes have been filling up over the past 4-5 years anyway, so they're NOT being shut down for a lack of demand by the students. In fact, in the fall 2005 semester, they began offering diesel technology classes in addition to the gas engine stuff...so they seem to have been headed in the right direction.
I just think that, in these uncertain economic times, schools like IVY Tech should be concentrating on MORE training for skilled trades, because fewer and fewer grads with business degrees are gonna be needed while this economic mess unwinds.
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