I-CAR’s latest curriculum, I-CAR Academy, which replaces its Professional Development Program Education Edition (PDPEE), is a vast improvement for schools, according to a Texas instructor.

Raven Hartkopf, Collin College collision technology professor, said the school’s hybrid collision repair program has been using the new curriculum for about nine months. They used PDPEE until it became outdated for the school’s ASE-accredited program. During the in-between, Hartkopf had to find material to supplement a textbook they used that followed ASE guidelines.

She also noted that she found PDPEE to be too broad.

“Sometimes it was really challenging to find online content for certain classes,” she said. “Let’s say one chapter in the book, it’s really hard to stretch a chapter of welding into two classes so I had to go and source out a lot of other material.”

Hartkopf said she liked that she could compile a list of all the Academy modules and align them with certain classes.

“For example, the hammer and dolly module goes great with our non-structural metal repair,” she said.

Academy includes five core learning areas — Collision Repair Fundamentals, Disassembly and Reassembly, Plastic Repair, Aluminum and Steel Small Dent Removal, and Preparation for Refinish — with a badging system, similar to achieving tasks in a video game.

“Each module was a very specific thing that I could link to a certain class whereas with the PDP, there would be one module that could apply to several classes,” Hartkopf said. “It was really hard to integrate it in because… it goes into something far beyond what we were going to cover in the class. It fit but it didn’t quite fit.”

The website and its functionality make it easier to use compared to PDPEE, Hartkopf said.

“It was just very no-frills — a very basic website. It did the job but for a lot of the students now it’s all about the visuals and the website layout, whether it’s engaging to them or not.”

When it comes to grading, Academy makes that task easier as well, she added.

“They’ve got knowledge and skill assessments and there’s an actual rubric to grade students with,” Hartkopf said. “I like that a lot just because it’s less subjective grading… They didn’t have that before.”

I-CAR Academy is the first entry-level curriculum I-CAR has offered to shops focused on attracting, training, and retaining technicians, according to I-CAR Senior Marketing Director Arianna Sherlock. It will be available to shops in August.

I-CAR asked shops to pilot the program, one of which was Gustafson Brothers in California. Trish Ostrander, Gustafson Brothers’ training and marketing manager, said the curriculum is a great supplement to the shop’s apprenticeship program and provides more structure.

The apprenticeship program began two years ago because shop president, John Gustafson, is passionate about training and wanted to help prepare the next generation of techs, Ostrander said.

“It’s an on-the-job training apprenticeship program that provides the fundamentals and the curriculum as they start,” Ostrander said. “Now they can start out with that extra knowledge of ‘why’ things work in conjunction with their hands-on training. They’ll master their craft quicker with this duo.”

Eight apprentices have gone through the program. The shop helps each of its apprentices find a job at another shop if there isn’t an opening at Gustafson Brothers.

One apprentice is about to graduate from I-CAR Academy and one has already graduated.

The goal of I-CAR Academy is to introduce new technicians to a lifetime learning approach “designed around longevity in the field because we’re getting too many people in that don’t stick,” Sherlock said.

The Academy shop product includes resources on culture building and how to make good mentors.

“When you go to a technical school and you take this Academy curriculum, you’re in an excellent position to start in a collision repair shop,” said Elizabeth Prosser, I-CAR marketing and public relations senior manager. “You understand the ins and outs of it, you understand some of the basic things based on this badging, and then they’re able to be a real productive participant at the shop.”

Images

Featured image: Students at Collin College are pictured learning refinish techniques. (Provided by Collin College)

Collin College collision technology students hold completion certificates for varying learning areas of I-CAR Academy. (Provided by Collin College)