May 4, 2016—I-CAR announced Tuesday its goal to provide training, knowledge and solutions to 19,000 shops. The new goal adds 10,000 shops to the 9,123 trained in 2015.
“It’s time for the industry to recognize that technical training which contributes to performance of complete, safe and quality repairs isn’t an option. It can mean survival for collision repairers, and our data shows that while surviving, shops can also thrive due to the productivity and efficiency gains that can be achieved through a better educated workforce,” I-CAR CEO and president John Van Alstyne said. “It is imperative that each and every technician in the industry has access to training and understands how they will benefit, and that business owners recognize the return on investment they can gain by investing in training now.”
In 2015, I-CAR was able to train more than 3,500 shops to achieve Gold Class while almost 1,700 shops were on the Road to Gold program. More than 62,000 students earned more than 512,000 credit hours.
In 2016, I-CAR plans to offer more relevant training that relates to the need of today’s collision repair industry. I-CAR plans to offer a greater variety of training topics in 2016 and beyond to accommodate the rapidly evolving industry development and technological advancements.
“Our goal is to help the industry understand the critical need for training, the benefits of training and that today’s I-CAR is not yesterday’s I-CAR,” said Van Alstyne. “We offer a fresh and relevant curriculum, the latest technical information through our Repairability Technical Support (RTS) Portal, and a total solution that in the face of the Technical Tsunami helps our industry perform complete, safe and quality repairs – while ultimately helping to improve business performance and reduce liability.”
