New vehicle technologies require highly-trained workers
One thing that can safely be said about the automotive industry and our society in general is that the rate of change and the impact of change is unprecedented.
For evidence of this observation think about the sea changes that have taken place in the automotive industry over the course of the last two years alone, the restructuring of which has changed the entire automotive industry forever. Companies like General Motors and Chrysler in the U.S. that had been deemed “too big to fail” (like many U.S. financial institutions) did so in the onset and aftermath of the global financial crisis that tipped the world into a recession that it is only now beginning to crawl out of.
Boat rocked again
However, with the idiotic prelude to an 11th hour agreement on raising the debt ceiling in the United States and the subsequent downgrade of that country’s credit rating, the world’s stock markets were sent on a roller coaster ride the end of which has yet to be determined. Obviously Canada will not be immune to what happens in the global economy and especially with respect to what happens with our neighbour to the south, but so far we have weathered the economic storm in better shape.
Natural disasters, as opposed to the man-made kind that I have been talking about, have also wreaked havoc with the automotive industry specifically and Japanese society generally. The fragility of the industry’s global supply chain was brought home in spades with the March earthquake and tsunami in that country, leaving many vehicle manufacturers still struggling to normalize operations and return to full production.
Greener products on the way
On the product side of the business, the wave of change rolling over the industry is readily apparent. The once novel hybrid gasoline electric vehicles have become much more ubiquitous with most manufacturers having one or more hybrids in, or planned for, their product line ups in the very near future.
That said, after 10 years of being available in the marketplace, hybrids still make up only around two per cent of all vehicle sales. Additionally vehicles called PHEV’s (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle), BEV’s (battery electric vehicle) along with range extended BEV’s (think Chevy Volt) will be on the road and available to consumers over the course of the next few months.
Greenhouse gas emission regulations and new fuel economy standards are driving the industry to look at a myriad of alternative propulsion options, in addition to the use of lightweight and rather esoteric materials and components to achieve those goals. With the March announcement that Mercedes-Benz would develop fuel cell R&D and production facilities in Burnaby, B.C. that are scheduled to come on-line in 2013, will fuel cell vehicles be far behind?
So it is a challenging but very exciting time to be part of the automotive industry. But what do all of these changes to the very nature of the automobile itself mean for those men and women who not only have to sell but perhaps more importantly service this bevy of new propulsion technologies, components and assembly materials?
Big changes coming
For perhaps the first 100 years or so of the 125 year history of the automobile, the passenger car didn’t really change in any significant way. They were essentially mechanical devices propelled by internal combustion engines. With the application of electronics to address not only functioning of the engine and its associated emission control systems in the 1980s as well as other vehicle systems, it was apparent to all in the industry that the role of the auto mechanic was evolving into a repair and service technician that required a largely different set of skills and training to be able to properly repair modern vehicles.
In 1988, the Canadian Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) Council was born out of this industry dialogue that involved manufacturers, dealers, distributors, the aftermarket and the pre-cursor to today’s Human Resources Skills Development Canada. There was a shared concern that the industry needed to have some mechanism of ensuring that it had the right human resources, with the right skill set, properly trained to repair the modern vehicles that were rapidly evolving from mechanical to electronic conveyances.
The CARS Council undertook labour market research, as it has continued to do over the years, to identify particular areas of skills shortages within the industry as well as preparing, in consultation with the industry, skills development and training tools to address these shortages.
With government investment in the CARS Council, it has been able to leverage millions of dollars and in-kind support from all facets of the industry that have recognized the crucial work that the council undertakes with direct involvement from the industry to ensure that the service and repair workforce is appropriately armed with the skills, training, knowledge and resources to repair today’s vehicles.
Third party endorsement is often the highest form of flattery and it was gratifying to see the Conference Board of Canada recognize the important work of the CARS Council earlier this year in its study entitled CARS OnDemand: High-Gear Training for a Sector in the Fast Lane in which the author stated, “CARS Council is uniquely positioned to address the skills and knowledge needs of the automotive repair and service sector on a national, regional and local level.”
As we look to the immediate future regarding the huge changes that are taking place in propulsion technology alone, the work of the council could not be more necessary or timely for the more than 300,000 Canadians working in the automotive service and repair industry.
