The 18-month Audi Education Partnership program has made changes to its material to cover electric vehicles more in-depth, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
The program aims to train entry-level technicians to become experts. It had its first graduating class last year and plans on 11 more graduations this year.
Recently it has been updated to have a stronger focus on EV maintenance, beginning with self-paced learning modules centering around EV battery repair and programming a vehicle’s computer systems before students go on to work as apprentices in Audi dealerships.
Students must attend eight weeks' worth of Audi-specific classroom training that will cover electrical basics, wiring diagrams, mechanical diagnosis, suspension and alignment procedures, driver-assist systems, and repair of Audi chassis systems.
Through their work as apprentices students are paid a minimum of $15 an hour. Transportation to their classroom learning is paid for by Audi.
“We have 304 dealerships and our training program can handle 330 to 350 students at any given time. We graduate about 130 technicians a year,” said Brian Stockton, Audi’s senior director of technical service, training, and customer experience. “Once they complete all of their training it’s not unusual to see technicians earnings upwards of $100,000 a year.”
