Gateway, Snap-on Receive Auto Technician Grant; Money Is Part of U.S. Effort to Boost Mechanic Industry

Gateway Technical College and Snap-on Inc. received a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Wednesday as part of a nationwide effort to develop programs to increase the number of automotive technicians. The money will be used to develop a Web-based tutorial for more than 500 secondary and post-secondary instructors and schools attempting to get nationally certified.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE– Gateway Technical College and Snap-on Inc. received a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Wednesday as part of a nationwide effort to develop programs to increase the number of automotive technicians.

The grant is not only an award, but also a symbol that southeastern Wisconsin is creating a better future and more jobs, Gateway President Samuel Borden said. The auto mechanic industry is expected to grow by up to 164,000 jobs in the next eight years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And there is a shortage of auto technicians. Wisconsin needs about 1,500 new auto workers a year to graduate from technical schools, but only about a third do so, according to the Foundation of the Wisconsin Automobile & Truck Dealers.

The industry is becoming more technical, according to Dale Elliott, chief executive of the Kenosha-based Snap-on, an automotive tool company. “The days of the grease-under-the-fingernail auto technician are long gone,” Elliott said. Cars are now heavily composed of sensors and computers, he added. For those reasons, leaders said, a standardized training and certification program for auto technicians is needed.

The money will be used to develop a Web-based tutorial for more than 500 secondary and post-secondary instructors and schools attempting to get nationally certified. The Melior Institute, a nationwide automotive training cooperative, and Snap-on already have created much of the training curriculum, and Gateway’s role will be to put the material online. That process will take about a year, Borden said.

Once auto instruction becomes standardized, leaders hope technician salaries will increase from the current average of $41,000 to six-digits for workers with post-high school training, according to the Department of Labor.

“We want to see more growth of workers in high-paying jobs,” said Steven Law, the Labor Department deputy secretary who presented the grant to the school and Snap-on at a ceremony at the Gateway Kenosha campus. Also present during the ceremony were U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Kenosha County Executive Allan Kehl. Gateway is one of 10 recipients nationally to receive part of the $6.3 million grant that will train auto technicians, a part of President Bush’s recently introduced High Growth Job Training Initiative.

Frank Tingle, chairman of the Racine County Democratic Party, applauded the grant’s role in increasing local economic opportunity but also criticized it.”Gateway’s having to go out and work to get money to bring education for people, something that should be provided at the federal level without having to jump through hoops for education,” Tingle said. The federal government also should provide more funding to primary and secondary schools, he said.” Grade schools and high schools are the roads followed to get to Gateway,” Tingle said. “There are schools that need new roofs, heating and infrastructure.”

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