Kirkwood-Toyota partnership creates training for future repair techs

If it isn't broken, they break it - all in the name of education.

As America continues its tentative flirtation with gasoline-stingy hybrid automobiles, Kirkwood Community College, in partnership with Toyota Motor Sales USA, is training technicians to diagnose and repair regular and hybrid vehicles.

The Kirkwood T-TEN Program and Snap-On Certification Center is the only one of its kind in Iowa.

And that's where things get broken, to see if their students can fix them.

“It's very structured learning, using a lab sheet with specific checkpoints,” explained Todd Hesseltine, assistant professor of automotive technology at Kirkwood. “We have them do some theoretical work and then we check it off.

“We move from there to practical diagnosis, showing them what a problem would look like, what information would reveal this specific problem, and then we test them.

“We deliberately create a fault in a system to see if they know how to diagnose it and repair it.”

As fuel prices climb, the demand for skilled automotive technicians to keep vehicles operating efficiently is growing. In fact, the automotive industry will need 35,000 new technicians each year through 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And the pay? Median income nationally for skilled automotive service technicians was $35,790 per year, or $17.21 per hour, in May 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“T-TEN combines classroom study and hands-on dealership experience,” Hesseltine said. “Our students work with the latest technology, tools and equipment and graduate with Toyota and industry certifications.”

Toyota-Scion dealerships in the Corridor hire Kirkwood students while they are still in school as well as after they graduate. Terry Kimmel, service manager at Toyota-Scion of Iowa City, said the Kirkwood T-TEN program has been very beneficial for students and his dealership.

“We have nine technicians in our shop who have gone through the Kirkwood T-TEN program,” Kimmel said. “We team each of them up with an experienced technician, but the training they have received really helps them work in a dealership.”

Jon Fridinger, service manager at Cedar Rapids Toyota-Scion in Hiawatha, said he has two Kirkwood students in the T-TEN program working part time while they complete their schooling.

The Kirkwood-Toyota T-TEN Program partnership dates to 1986.

“Toyota was originally looking at Des Moines, but a Kansas City regional training instructor said the company should be looking at Kirkwood and Cedar Rapids because of its geographic location,” Hesseltine said.

Hesseltine said Kirkwood's automotive technology students are doing more discovery learning as well as theoretical and practical diagnostics in the place of the classroom lectures.

While Kirkwood automotive tech and T-TEN graduates won't know everything about every vehicle, Hesseltine said they will have a far greater skill set than someone who came through the program as late as five years ago.

“With their hands on it every day and the access to factory equipment, they are more prepared to go to work in a dealership,” Hesseltine said. “That's especially true in the area of hybrid vehicles because it's a completely different animal.

“We're giving our students a basic hybrid training program, but we're looking to really beef up the program. They will still need to go to the Toyota Regional Center (in Kansas City, Mo.), for the hybrid training program, but they will be well prepared for it with the training they receive here.”

Toyota is doing a curriculum overhaul that will completely rebuild the program “top to bottom,” he added. “We're moving all the electrical and engine diagnostics to the front end of the program, where it previously was on the back end of the program.”

Kirkwood promotes the T-TEN and Snap-On Certification programs to high school students as far away as Nebraska and Minnesota. During a recent visit to schools in the Omaha area, he told students that mechanical aptitude is still important, but the industry has changed in recent years from 80 percent repair and 20 percent diagnostic to 80 percent diagnostic and 20 percent repair.

“If you don't have some sort of love for problem-solving, electrical diagnostics and computers, this is not a field for you,” Hesseltine said.

The Kirkwood T-TEN program is integrated into the regular automotive technology program. Hesseltine said the T-TEN program dropout rate at Kirkwood is far lower than the national average because the college takes a proactive approach.

“We give our students really good program conferences up front,” Hesseltine said. “We tell them that their reading, writing and math had better be up there and there's going to be a lot of computerized diagnostics. We don't want them to fail.”