Jan. 22, 2019—Nearly one quarter (24 percent) of the collision repair industry is now engaged in I-CAR training for I-CAR Gold Class status.
Over the years that the I-CAR training program has been in place, students have shifted from taking a majority of the training through classroom training lessons to taking more online courses. In-shop training has increased too, according to John Van Alstyne, I-CAR CEO and president. To keep the training in line with industry feedback, there will be a total curriculum refresh as of the second quarter of 2019.
Starting this year, there will be more I-CAR courses, but the number of hours that technicians will need to train will be reduced. In addition to more courses and a total of 246 courses, Spanish courses will be available in 2019.
Courses are not the only element changing for I-CAR in 2019. The program will be ending its Road to Gold status as of February 2019. There is a transition period for Gold-Class shops to reach that status by the end of February and stay current with renewals in 2019.
An additional new element for I-CAR in 2019: Van Alstyne said at a media briefing last week that I-CAR will be getting a data feed from the OEM partners and updating the knowledge assessments of technicians, so that technicians no longer need to say they’ve been trained through an OEM or have updated their training.
