Refinishing School

Formal training for autobody painters is a lot like baseball, hot dogs and apple pie: Everyone's for it. The problem is, not everyone is willing to pay for it.

Many shops prefer to train their painters on the job-perhaps starting them as a clean-up person, then moving them into prep work and finally, letting them spray some color as an apprentice. But the thought of sending an employee off for three or four days to a paint manufacturer's or I-CAR school in a distant city isn't something that gladdens the heart of many shop owners. It's expensive and time-consuming.

There's the up-front expenditure: Like everything else, costs have increased. Paint makers often pay for lodging and some meals, but the rest is the student's responsibility. Course fees, a rough average of $200, and travel expenses can quickly exceed $1,000. Even if a jobber is picking up expenses, as is often the case, many shop owners are reluctant to send their employees because they view such training as lost workdays, lost production and lost income.

In reality-as any industry expert will attest-training is a terrific investment. "The well-trained employee makes about $10,000 more a year [than the untrained employee]," says Jay Johnston, training manager for BASF. "And since almost all of them are paid on commission, that means they're making proportionately more income for the shop. They also stay longer than the untrained employee."

More Income

"Right now, partially because of the economy, the commitment to training by shops is not where it should be. And that's unfortunate, because well-trained employees lead to trouble-free, problem-free shops," says Steffen Apollo, training director for DuPont Performance Coatings. More income, less turnover, problem-free paint operations? Those are advantages that should resonate not only with shop owners, but also with paint distributors and paint manufacturers. "Getting their customers trained in a line of products that they sell is a great customer retention tool for jobbers," says Paul Maiersperger, Standox training manager.

Some distributors recognize this and regularly send customers to paint school. Take, for example, Metro Paint, a Standox distributor with three stores in Chicago. Several times a year, Metro sends groups of about a dozen customers to the Standox U. S. Headquarters and Training Center in Plymouth, Mich. Metro pays for everything.

"We've been sponsoring the trips for nine years," says Metro President Bill Weiss. "It's an investment in our customers that helps them achieve their goals, and it really pays off for us and for them. It's really a win-win [situation]."

Each class is made up entirely of Metro customers, and instruction is tailored somewhat to the audience. The jobber often sends panels painted with difficult-to-match colors to Plymouth ahead of time. Instructors can then address the particular problems confronting the incoming class. Such customized classes are available from virtually all of the major automotive paint manufacturers, who work closely with their jobbers on training. PPG won't accept a student unless he or she is sponsored by a distributor, according to PPG's David McConnaughey, coordinator of curriculum development."This does not mean that the jobber must pay for the course," he quickly adds. "It simply means that he vouches for the student."

Serious Business

Training today tends to be more serious than a few years ago. "It's no longer a three-day party, like it used to be," says Johnston. That's due in part to the advent of two- and three-part basecoats and low-VOC products, he says.

PPG's McConnaughey says now that there's less solvent and more solids in the can, the days of spraying a forgiving lacquer under a shade tree are long gone. "Now a painter has to know some chemistry," he says.

Says Art Allred, the training director for Valspar/House of Kolor: "They're much more technicians than applicators."

More knowledgeable students tend to challenge tradition. "They're a lot more informed and educated now," says Mark Perlejewski, Transtar training director. "They're interested in safety and environmental issues, and some of them want to know what they can do in the area of breaking systems-using one brand of paint with another." Transtar makes many refinish products, including under coats and clear coats, as well as compound and glaze systems, but not color. So, while mixing different paint systems is not recommended by most paint makers, Transtar, not surprisingly, welcomes such queries. "We recommend other systems that can be used with our products," Perlejewski says. "Besides, I don't think it happens any more that a shop uses one line exclusively."

Collaboration

Training today has become more standardized thanks to growing cooperation among paint manufacturers, auto makers, I-CAR, ASE and trade schools. Most paint manufacturers have met the demanding requirements of ASE certification for Continuing Automotive Service Education (CASE). ASE grants certification only after extensive documentation of the provider's instructional design process and an intensive eight-hour interview. CASE providers can issue Continuing Education Units (CEUs), which can count toward college credit. I-CAR, meanwhile, formed the Industry Training Alliance in January 2001 to bring together technical training providers and vocational schools to coordinate their training efforts and to increase the availability and quality of training. Students who receive training from Industry Alliance participants now earn I-CAR Gold Class points, which apply to both the Gold Class Professionals and Platinum Individual programs.

Collision industry professionals can now take advantage of more of the training programs included in I-CAR's defined career training paths because there is no need to take the same technical class, essentially, twice.

"Because Alliance members can award Gold Class points for training, shops can reduce greatly what it costs to qualify for the Gold Class status," says Tom Mack, I-CAR executive vice president and CEO.

Many courses are competency-based training required by either the paint manufacturer or the carmaker. "The cooperation between OEMs and the paint manufacturers has been one of the most significant developments recently," says Michael Pellett, director of curriculum development for Sherwin-Williams. "Training used to be very generic; now it's tailored to what the OEMs need."

Competency-based courses conclude with a test that the student must pass in order to perform warranty repairs. "That test waiting for them at the end tends to focus their attention for the entire class," Pellett says.

While training is serious business, there's still time for some old-fashioned bonding-especially after hours. "The fact that Bourbon Street is just 40 miles away doesn't hurt us," says Allred from his training center in Picayune, Miss.

Instructors are also skilled at putting students at ease. "The classroom isn't the most comfortable place for most of the people who attend our schools, so we try to make it fun and interactive," says Bill McIlhargey, training and development manager for Akzo Nobel. Much of the training-up to 70 percent-is hands-on in the spray booth. Students may work on sheet metal panels or vehicles.

Mobile and Trilingual

If the students aren't able to come to the school, the school will often come to them. Many paint manufacturers operate mobile training units. PPG, for instance, has 18 of what McConnaughey calls "bricks and mortar" training facilities and two "road schools"-20 ft. trailers with virtually everything needed to conduct a class, including graduation plaques. "The only thing they don't have is product," he says. "They get that from our distributors in the area where they're teaching."

BASF operates several 24-ft. trailers that travel to the U.S., Canada and Mexico. "We teach in English, Spanish and French-a must when you're in Quebec," says Johnston.

Because of the growing number of Hispanic painters, most paint manufacturers offer classes in Spanish. "Instruction in Spanish is one of the major trends in the industry, especially in the southern tier of the United States," notes DuPont Performance Coatings' Apollo.

Manufacturers also have formed alliances with trade schools throughout the country. The manufacturer provides curriculum development materials, equipment and resources, and the school in turn teaches the manufacturer's system and allows limited use of its facilities for the manufacturer's classes. DuPont, for instance, has created an educational alliance with Universal Technical Institute (UTI) that supports the Collision Repair & Refinish Technology program offered at the school's campus in Houston.

Eleven Months = Five Years?

In 11 months, UTI students go through five phases of instruction, from the basics to custom painting techniques and estimating. Says Chad Babcock, a refinish instructor at UTI: "They get knowledge here that would take them five years to get in the field."

UTI is about to begin an advanced phase in which eight students, chosen by the faculty, will participate. "The course covers Toyota specifications taught according to I-CAR standards," Babcock says. "The purpose is to fine-tune the students. It's a Toyota pilot program for 25 other cities."

As for the future of training, there probably will be more emphasis on what PPG's McConnaughey calls "soft issues," such as how to make sales calls, stress management, employee retention and better estimate writing.

Johnston sees more "distance type training over the Internet. It's a resource the industry has only begun to tap."

Whatever form it may take, as Akzo Nobel's McIlhargey advises: "Take training whenever you can-it's the best investment in your future."