At NACE Automechanika in Atlanta, I-CAR announced it would overhaul it’s programming—aka the Automotive Collision Repair Industry Knowledge and Skills Protocol—in the first quarter of 2019, referencing a variety of enhancements designed to better serve the rapidly evolving needs of the collision repair industry.
And those enhancements, says John Van Alstyne, stem from five years of feedback from I-CAR’s industry segment advisory council (ISAC), which is comprised of 83 shops broken up regionally across the U.S. that meet a few times each year to discuss potential improvements to I-CAR.
“So we get lots of feedback,” says Van Alstyne, I-CAR CEO and president. “We take copious notes, look for common themes, and then prioritize.”
In this series, FenderBender will be looking at some of those upcoming changes with Van Alstyne.
I-CAR may have announced a major overall refresh of its Automotive Collision Repair Industry Knowledge and Skills Protocol, but the organization has been working on a number of similar changes over the past year. In late 2017, I-CAR announced it would completely rebuild its courses (which included having classes available in Spanish) and establish more online-based training.
Those aspirations are part of the 2019 overhaul, but collision repairers can expect a course schedule that segments out skills between online-based and live hands-on classes. Beforehand, where some skills would overlap between live and web settings, now you can expect certain training regimens to be available exclusively in either one or the other.
To give a preview, Van Alstyne says about 75 percent of estimator classes would be available online, with some of the damage assessment classes required in a live setting; about 50 percent of refinish and non-structural classes will be online-only; and 30 percent of structural courses will be web-based.
“That’s part of our purpose-built strategy,” Van Alstyne says, as I-CAR doesn’t want to create a conflict by offering the same class both online and live, as there would likely be less interest in the live class and dampen the learning environment.
I-CAR will also be launching Spanish versions of all core courses in the online format.
All of these enhancements to the online format have been coordinated, reviewed and embraced by industry subject matter experts, including repairers, OEMs and insurers.
