When fleet maintenance supervisors, shop owners, dealers, suppliers, and manufacturers get together, one of the major topics discussed is the technician shortage. Questions come up, like “Who is going to help?” “What are others doing to fix the problem?”

Meeting after meeting, folks continuously ask the manufacturers, suppliers, trade associations, and others to come up with a solution.

Become an influence

For those of you still looking for that perfect or near-perfect experienced technician, stop wasting your money and resources looking for someone that may not exist. Most of the best technicians are being taken care of by their employers. Those technicians who continue to move from shop location to shop location are often doing so for a reason, and it’s not a good reason.

If you are not involved in your local schools and programs, you are part of the problem. Get involved and make your voice heard. Engage in local programs that can provide you with the workforce you need.

Many schools and course titles refer to our industry as “diesel technology.” Students enrolled in these programs, for the most part, want to work on trucks or heavy equipment.

We, as an industry, need to engage with these schools and students in what we have to offer. We need to continue to promote the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC), and the benefits of the organization and its members. We need to influence the instructors and schools with the value of our industry and the opportunities at the beginning of their education and training, not wait to be another banner at a career fair.

Pay it forward

I am asking every one of you to invest in the industry’s future, and your company’s future, by investing in sponsoring or donating funds for students to compete in the TMCFutureTech student technician skills competition. The next competition will be held ahead of the TMC Fall Meeting this September in Raleigh, North Carolina.

All contestants need to be currently enrolled or have graduated within six months from a diesel technician program in order to participate in the TMCFutureTech competition. This year’s competition starts September 16.

You can choose to support a student in a local educational program, a person you just hired from a technical school or community college, or sponsor a student at a school from which you graduated.

For those organizations that cannot directly sponsor a student, consider making a donation to the TechForce Foundation. These funds can be made in the name of a school or as a general donation to support students’ travel and registration to the competition.

I personally support one to four students every year. It is really simple; I take out my credit card and make it happen. My average donation amount is about $1,200 per student. I have also donated airline miles to help with travel for contestants. Additional costs for each contestant include flights or travel expenses to the competition and three nights of lodging. If there are two students from the same school, at times they will share a room to help reduce costs.

A call to action

This is our industry and we need these students and schools to know they are important to us and that we are willing to invest in them.

As a parent, wouldn’t you want the industry your child is interested in or studying for to invest in them? It’s your turn to invest in someone else’s child and their future. Not to mention, the future of our industry.

Don’t be part of the problem, be part of the solution. Get involved and invest in the future.

George Arrants is the training consultant for K&D Technical Innovations. As an automotive education consultant specializing in ASE Program Accreditation, Arrants works with instructors and administrators to develop partnerships with local business and industry through program advisory committees. He is past chair of the Technology and Maintenance Council’s TMCSuperTech – the National Technician Skills Competition – and the TMCFutureTech – the National Student Technician Competition. His entire career has been in the automotive service and education industries. He works with the ASE Education Foundation as the Medium/Heavy Truck Alliance manager.