How Shops Are Seeking Out The Next Generation

It’s 2024—have you found the next generation of diesel technicians yet?

And if you have, how are you going to teach them?

Much has been made of the tech shortage and its implications for the coming years. We’ve all heard the problems: Kids are being turned away from the field and pushed toward universities. The older techs are retiring. In short, tech hiring is An Issue. 

But some young—and young-at-heart—people do learn about diesel repair, and they find it fascinating. So maybe they’d like to learn more, or even get a job at a repair shop. How do they do it?

Good question. There aren’t a lot of diesel repair outreach programs out there, although there’s a handful of schools still offering diesel repair as a class option, and yeah, there’s a few trade schools out there. But more and more repair shops are considering starting up their own programs, both to educate the general public about diesel and start training the new generation of diesel techs.

It’s the training that causes the most problems. 

Training is always going to be a tougher ask in a busy workplace. After all, everyone’s already got their own tasks they have to focus on—who has time to train the new kids, especially if they don’t already work there? But it’s still gotta happen, especially in a field like this, where so much of the learning pretty much needs to be hands-on.

But fear not! There is hope.

Our good friends at WrenchWay are leading the charge on both connecting technicians with the shops that need them and developing the next generation of techs. They have reason to believe there’s hope; during an appearance on a recent Shop Owner Roundtable, WrenchWay’s Co-Founder and President, Jay Goninen, said that Gen-Z—They Who Shall Inherit The Earth!—seem to have a healthy acceptance for the trades. This is in stark contrast to the millennials, who were steadily pushed away from trades and into four-year universities.

“I think schools are talking to them differently about the trades now,” Jay says in the webinar. “I think there’s still some negative perceptions of what the industry’s all about, and I think that’s where us being involved in schools and talking to parents and educating them on who we are is really important.”  

Which brings us to our next point! 

During the last few months, we’ve talked to several shops about the various programs they’ve put into place (or thought about putting into place). You’ll notice this article doesn’t contain a to-do or how-to list, as frankly every shop’s situation is different, and at least one of our interviewees had access to resources others might not. Instead, we’re focusing on how they did it and how far they want to go with it.

HOPES AND DREAMS MEET CHALLENGES

Ashley Sowell of Integrity Fleet Services in Texas has some big ideas.

She’s long thought about developing a mentorship or apprenticeship program for her shop, but she’s also got her eye on the bigger impact she could have on the industry. Ultimately, it will probably have components that will look like Iron Buffalo’s program, but it will also have a heavy educational component focused on introducing young people (and their parents) to the industry.

That lack of awareness, Ashley told us, is a large contributor to the tech shortage. “A lot of the skilled trades—our industry in particular,  but all of them—are a dying breed, and it’s largely because it’s drilled into young people’s heads that [the right path is] ‘college, college, college!’” 

Hey, college can be great. Sometimes a four-year university is the right choice. But as we’ve discussed before, pushing that four-year, white-collar career has come at the detriment of the trades. The current batch of diesel techs is getting older, and once they’re gone, Ashley wonders, “Who’s gonna fix this stuff?”

And more importantly, who’s gonna teach the techs that are coming up how to fix this stuff?

Diesel repair isn’t going away. Oh, sure, we may get autonomous electric trucks eventually, but someone is still going to have to maintain and repair those vehicles once they show up. It might be called vehicle repair instead of diesel repair, but the actual job is still going to be out there. 

“Teachers are hard to come by,” she added. “The automotive programs in schools are closing.” And the information she comes across regarding the diesel field—including pay—is often incorrect. 

Her overall hopes for the program center on building out an educational component at the shop and training up new technicians that want to work for Integrity. Sure, there’ll be an investment of time and money, but “if anything,” she noted, “it will save on recruitment.” 

So what’s stopping her from executing on this program?

The same thing that often stops us all: Time.

Ashley already has a full-time job running her shop. She’s also got a family. Her employees also have full-time jobs and families and obligations of their own. “You don’t want to pack more stuff onto your people when they’re trying to do their work,” she said. “Eventually, I’d like to get a specific person who just does that—the training.” 

THE SHOP THAT MADE IT HAPPEN

Training and teaching—and either finding someone to do that, or making time for it out of your own schedule—is always going to be a difficulty. So we were keen to chat with Mike Schwarz of Iron Buffalo Truck & Trailer Repair, located in Commerce City, Colorado, because he managed to do just that. 

“I’m not sure we’d call it a mentorship program,” Mike said as we got started. “I think of mentorship programs … a junior paired up with a senior at their respective level, and various levels of structure associated with that for their engagement.” 

Iron Buffalo is a large operation—one of the largest in Colorado—and one of their biggest issues remains finding techs. Like many shops, they have exceptionally high standards…and finding techs who met those standards, well, anyone hiring these days knows that can be tough.

Finding technicians of that caliber, in the numbers they required, would be difficult to say the least. So in Mike’s words, they decided to create them.

Iron Buffalo was fortunate enough to be practically down the street from a high school that actually had an extensive shop program with a full, 3000-square-foot diesel shop—a rarity these days. A close working partnership formed; if a shop teacher calls out sick, Iron Buffalo sends a tech in to sub. And reps from the shop show up frequently at the high school, talking about life as a diesel tech and the opportunities it provides. “It’s about showing high school students that [diesel repair] is a viable career,” he told us. 

A large component of Iron Buffalo’s program is Ian Matje, formerly the head of the high school’s shop department. He’s now their Director of Training, developing and refining shop curriculum and spending an hour with every technician every other week. They work on real jobs against that curriculum and the recommended procedures (by the way, they use TMC’s guidelines for said procedures). 

“When [techs] run into problems or have a question, they get him and bring him over to their trucks,” Mike explains. Ian’s entire purpose is to help them develop their skills and get them up to A-level. Ian, by the way, is a double threat: he’s not just a master-level tech, he’s also a trained high school teacher—he knows how to educate.

(We won’t get too much into it here, but teaching someone to do something is an entirely different skill from actually doing said thing. That Ian has experience with both is a rare feat; it’s no wonder Iron Buffalo grabbed him.)

At the moment, it’s looking like a seven-year program, with pay commensurate to each level. 

Good grief, Fullbay, you may be thinking, that sounds expensive.

Yeah, it is. Iron Buffalo is a large, established shop, and Mike confirms that their program is not a cheap one. Beyond that, it will take some time for the program to reach its full potential (again, we’re looking at seven years). Initial results have been good, with improved quality from the techs they do have, but it’s an investment in time, too. A smaller shop is going to run into some significant barriers in duplicating this program.

Still, we hope it provides some ideas.

If this story seems familiar, there’s a reason for it! We talked to Mike and his colleague Ian about their training program (the shop was called JE-CO at that time) on our Shop Owner Roundtable last year. You can get full details by watching the webinar.

GETTING STARTED WITH EDUCATION

Getting started in training—whether you want to set up a mentoring or apprenticeship program, or want to broaden diesel education in general—isn’t going to be cheap or easy. But it’s important work, and we hope these stories at least sparked your interest. 

If you’re not sure where to begin, start with your local school system! Visit high schools within driving distance, introduce yourself, and see what kind of shop programs they have. Diesel is admittedly rare, but there’s a few high schools that have automotive programs. The point is to work with schools and see what you can accomplish—and who knows? You might end up forming a partnership that results in newly-minted diesel techs.