The Inter-Industry Conference On Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) has announced a number of changes in how it will operate and how it will train collision repair professionals. ABRN wanted to find out what those changes mean for the organization and the market. One of the biggest changes made recently has been to require ongoing training for Gold Class Professionals and Platinum individuals.
"I-CAR made these changes for two primary reasons; to incorporate recent and ongoing training requirements into the programs and to simplify the program to make is easier to determine if your business meets the Gold Class requirements," says Tom McGee, I-CAR's president and CEO.
"Additionally, the need to ensure that recent training was part of the Gold Class program, all points need to be 'tested' points. That is, training that was taken so long ago that there was no test associated with the program will no longer count for inclusion in the Gold Class Professionals program. That gets us to recent and ongoing training. So even though some positions can now qualify with fewer points, the training needs to be current and ongoing. Therefore, I-CAR hasn't 'lowered the bar' with this new program; we have changed it to be even more meaningful."
While the availability of those materials via the Internet played a small part in the decision to make training a continuous process, other factors played a more important role, according to McGee. "I think that the change needed to be made whether or not these delivery methods were available, simply because of the critical nature of safe and proper repair coupled with the rapid change in technology in our industry. The fact that we have expanded our offerings and delivery capacity really helps the industry to embrace these programs as their 'standard' without fear that I-CAR can deliver on your training needs," he says.
Another notable change at I-CAR is that instructors are now employees of the organization, where in the past they were independent. McGee says the reason for the change is that "I-CAR has evolved to the point that we provide a complete template for training, including the curriculum, prescribed method and props. I believe that we all knew that eventually, I-CAR would face the need to have full-time and part-time employees conducting training versus independent contractors. This has allowed us to have full-time instructors in the United States to deliver I-CAR training, day or night, not just on weekends and evenings augmented with a couple hundred part-time instructor-employees."
ABRN had heard rumors that one reason for making instructors employees was that some instructors were not teaching I-CAR approved methods. That's not the case according to McGee. "That couldn't be much farther from the truth. If you think about it, when an independent contractor does something that you don't want them to do, you simply don't ask them to do it again."
McGee also points out that I-CAR instructors and volunteers "are really the backbone of I-CAR throughout North America."
Making instructors I-CAR employees will have no effect on using I-CAR materials in schools, says McGee. Those will continue to be part of the I-CAR Education Foundation's program, which provides high schools and colleges with I-CAR curriculum materials.
I-CAR also will be expanding into Australia, but that is not a sign the organization is aiming to introduce its training programs into other countries. "If any country wants to pursue I-CAR training for their industry, we welcome the opportunity and invite them to contact us. Having said that, I-CAR is not focusing any efforts into world expansion. Our focus is really on delivering quality training to the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and, soon Australia," says McGee.
