Need for Auto Technicians Fuels New SMCC Program

The two-year automotive degree program at Southern Maine Technical College seemed beyond repair in 2002, when school administrators suspended it. Automotive instructors at the South Portland college were retiring. Most high schools had better equipment than the gear at SMTC, and the college faced budget constraints.

From Kennebec Journal

KENNEBEC, Maine — The two-year automotive degree program at Southern Maine Technical College seemed beyond repair in 2002, when school administrators suspended it.

Automotive instructors at the South Portland college were retiring. Most high schools had better equipment than the gear at SMTC, and the college faced budget constraints.

But the program’s demise didn’t end the need in the Portland area for technicians who understand how to fix new cars, and the demand for workers with that training has resurrected the college’s automotive degree.

During the past two years, local dealerships worked with administrators at the school – which has been renamed Southern Maine Community College – to rewrite the curriculum and put new equipment into the campus’s laboratory. They also created a cooperative program to supplement students’ classroom work.

“This effort was brought about by what dealers saw as kind of a crisis,” said Tom Brown, president of the Maine Automobile Dealers Association.

Students in the program started taking general classes this fall, and automotive classes will begin in January when the lab is complete.

They are preparing to work in an industry where technology is driving demand for good technicians, who can make between $40,000 and $75,000 a year at dealerships.

Cars have gone from gears and grease to computers and sensors. This transformation requires workers to receive more training to become mechanics – what dealers today refer to as technicians. Students must learn not just how a transmission works, but about the computer system that operates it.

Bill Sowles, president of the Morong Falmouth car dealership, said half of his 16 technicians graduated from SMTC, and when the program shut down, he had no southern Maine source for new employees. The closest state program was Central Maine Community College in Auburn, and that doesn’t graduate enough students to meet the need.

Sowles and other dealers approached the SMCC administration, and the result is a program he thinks will produce much stronger graduates. The new curriculum and updated equipment will allow students to keep up with the high-tech work that car repair has become.

“To automobile dealers the availability of trained technicians is huge,” Brown said.

With 142 dealerships in Maine selling new cars and trucks, the work is there. For the college, the issue had been the cost of maintaining the program, rather than the need for graduates.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were needed, said Janet Sortor, vice president and dean of academic affairs for the college, for equipment that would restart the program.

Area dealerships have closed this gap for the college, donating equipment to ensure that the students’ education matches workplace requirements.

The community college has seen strong interest among students so far. Twenty-five students are enrolled in the program, and college officials estimate that number will grow with another teacher being hired next fall.

Sortor said the college will pay for the teaching staff and lab upkeep, and the dealerships will contribute through equipment donations and by providing an opportunity for students to spend 10 weeks a semester training at the dealerships. Many other community colleges, she added, have adopted a similar model.

“You have to stay up-to-date in these programs. If you get behind you will never catch up,” Sortor said.

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