Years of experience in education, technical training, and academic research converge to solve an emerging workforce skills gap
by Dave Macholz -President and CEO - Advanced Vehicle Technology Group
For the last fifteen years, I have had the pleasure of working as an automotive instructor, program manager, assistant dean, doctoral student and research fellow. I have worked with some of the industry's most recognized names toward the goal of building the future automotive and transportation workforce. Recently, as a result of these combined experiences, and seeing a need for training and development for technicians tasked with vehicle electrification and advanced technologies, I founded Advanced Vehicle Technology Group. AVTG is positioned to be the leader in empowering the workforce to embrace the unprecedented technological changes in vehicle technology.
I have been fortunate enough to work with some of the top organizations in automotive education and training both as an Instructor and Assistant Dean at SUNY Suffolk County Community College, and trainer and program manager with Worldpac. At Suffolk, we have built one of the Nation's premier post-secondary automotive programs with 8 OEM training partnerships including General Motors ASEP, Honda PACT, Toyota T-TEN, Nissan NTTA, Ford ACE, Mercedes Benz Campus, MOPAR CAP, and Subaru-U. We were also the 6th school in the Nation to become a Tesla START program. In my role at Suffolk I have taught technical courses, designed an implemented curriculum, and led the program to new highs in enrollment and retention which have culminated in the establishment of a capital project to build a new, state-of-the-art automotive technology center that is currently under design and will hopefully be built in late 2024.
At Worldpac, we have built a reputation of excellence in technician training that has impacted thousands of professional technicians across the U.S. and Canada.
As a doctoral student at Old Dominion University and ECMCF Post-Secondary Research Doctoral Fellow, my research agenda is focused on automotive industry credentials. While studying certification statistics, I came across the Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification figures which indicate that less than 4,000 technicians hold the L3 Hybrid / Electric Vehicle certification. As a percentage of the population of technicians this number represent less than 0.5% of the industry. This is an alarming statistic in light of the push to electrify vehicles here in the U.S..
As technology continues to progress, who will service and repair these vehicles? How can employers be certain their workforce understands the safety concerns of high voltage EVs?
After reflecting on this emerging problem, I made the decision to create a new organization to address this national skills-gap and prepare the workforce for the vehicles of today and tomorrow. The solution: Advanced Vehicle Technology Group, LLC (AVTG).
AVTG provides technical training and services for the transportation workforce.
Our training programming will address critical topics in the following areas:
First-Responder Training
EV Charging and Infrastructure
Continuing education opportunities through in-person events, online webinars and On-Demand eLearning
In addition, we will offer services including:
Educational Consulting for schools and training programs
Tools and Equipment to support EV safety, diagnosis, and repair
In the days to come, we will be posting exciting news and registration details for courses and programming. If you haven't already done so, please subscribe to stay informed and be the first to receive our latest updates.