David Peterson was never tempted to hit the links or put his toes in the sand after he sold his Louisville, Ky., Mercedes-Benz dealership in early January. Instead, Peterson is preparing for his next act: developing a national apprenticeship program for automotive technicians.
“I’ll get to the beach eventually,” he says. “I gotta do something else. This has energized me.”
Peterson, a 48-year veteran of the auto industry, has formed Automotive Apprenticeship Group to roll out his vision for a nationwide program to help recruit and retain dealership technicians.
“This is a pain spot I have suffered along with my fellow dealers,” he says of the tech shortage.
Peterson’s group finds potential candidates, assesses their automotive aptitude and discusses their goals. The candidate is assigned a mentor and starts training. AAG then talks with dealerships in need of techs, and a match is made.
“We make sure we’re all on the same page,” Peterson says. “That’s an important piece of this. The dealer has to be comfortable with this. We don’t rush it.”
Too often, Peterson says, a tech is well trained but not a cultural fit at the dealership, leading to turnover.
The program has been piloted in Louisville the past year. Peterson says he soon intends to take it to Dallas and Southern California, where he has heard from interested dealer friends.
During what Peterson calls “a two-year job interview,” the tech candidates split time between their dealership and AAG working on training modules. They are given a set of tools and continuously evaluated.
AAG and the dealership develop goals for each candidate. They remain on the AAG payroll until being fully certified. Peterson says dealers are asked to offset some costs.
“The secret to this is not a secret,” he says. “All of us have flaws; it just takes time. We will not be successful if a dealer just thinks they’re buying a commodity.
“We must make a commitment to caring for this young person.”