I-CAR Education Foundation offers $50,000 makeover to collision schools
Do you know of a cool school graduating entry-level collision repairers ready to go to work? If so, that secondary or post-secondary institution could be in line for a $50,000 grant from the I-CAR Education Foundation.
Known as the Ultimate Collision Education Makeover, the foundation’s offering presents an application process as rigorous as the toughest mid-term exam. Yet the high school or college that makes the grade will get much-needed funding to enhance its collision repair curriculum.
“We are looking for the school that has been doing excellent work both for its students and its local collision repair businesses, despite the budget cuts most technical education programs have suffered in recent years,” says Scott Kruger, the foundation’s executive director who calls the nationwide search a quest for “a diamond-in-the-rough.”
The $50,000 grant would amount to “a capital infusion to put it over the top and make it an excellent institution,” he says, comparing the endeavor to a popular television show: “The program is reminiscent of ‘Extreme Makeover,’ where a construction crew comes in and completely re-does a house.”
In the offing are serious upgrades for the institution’s classroom teaching tools, providing hands-on instruction covering cutting edge repair strategies such as waterborne paint systems and other industry innovations.
“The immediate beneficiary will be the student who is able to train with the right equipment and learn the proper techniques to complete a repair,” says Kruger. “But this goes down the line of the industry – from repair shops who hire these students that will certainly benefit from having entry-level workers who are efficient, capable and productive; all the way to the consumer who will have the benefit of a timely and quality repair.”
There are nearly 1,400 collision education programs eligible to apply for the grant. The money is to be disbursed through the foundation’s Collision Repair Education Campaign Fund encompassing charitable contributions from throughout the collision industry. Specific donations earmarked for the grant program are being accepted, according to Kruger, including gifts-in-kind of tools and equipment that a school may need.
“There is a lot of room for additional support within this program,” he points out, inviting industry suppliers to participate. “They are more than welcome to join in this program and make product donations.”
The Collision Repair Education Campaign Fund has long provided scholarships and other educational inducements such as equipment grants, but “this is the first time we have ever done this. It’s the largest grant we will award in the history of the I-CAR Education Foundation.”
(The entity is a 501 (c)(3) organization with a stated goal “to fuel the future of the industry by enriching opportunities for students in collision education.” I-CAR itself, the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair, was formed by the collision industry in 1979 as an international not-for-profit training organization.)
The anticipated competition for the foundation’s grant “will send a very strong message to other schools that their collision programs are very important,” Kruger continues.
“Hopefully this attention will also grab the attention of school boards and administrators” throughout the land. The focus is likely to also demonstrate how collision repair “is a very strong industry that offers opportunities to kids from all socio-economic backgrounds,” he adds.
“Aside from the obvious benefit of giving instructors the proper tools to teach and students the proper equipment on which to learn, our hope is that this grant program will make educators and school administrators take notice that collision repair is a significant, multi-billion dollar segment of our economy and collision education is worthy of investment,” he says. “We want to make a big splash in the schools.”
With a six-page form to be filled out by numerous people involved with the applying institution – including a report from the principal/dean; a testimonial from a student; input from area I-CAR representatives, shop owners and suppliers; plus a program description by the collision repair instructors – “the application process is rather exhaustive,” says Kruger.
The scope of the requested information requested is designed to present “a full picture of what (the school’s) current collision program is and its future potential. With so many schools around that are deserving of this award, we want to ensure each school is able to put forth the best application possible,” Kruger says.
“With schools budgets usually never large enough, we are honored to have the opportunity to bridge the program’s financial gap and to really make a difference in the lives of the students studying collision repair.”
The deadline for submission of the applications is Sept. 30. The winner will be announced at NACE.
For more information, contact: I-CAR Education Foundation’s Melissa Marscin at (888) 722-3787, ext. 282.