Simulating a Flat Rate Pay Plan in the Classroom
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Brand
GM
GM is a big company that makes cars and trucks, including popular brands like Chevrolet and Cadillac.
Concept
used cars
Used cars are cars that someone else owned before and are now being sold again, usually for less money than new cars.
Company
Vogue Tire
Vogue Tire is a company that sells special wheels and tires to make cars look nicer or perform better.
Term
wheels and tires
Wheels are the round metal parts your tires sit on, and tires are the rubber parts that touch the road and help your car move safely.
Concept
customizing vehicles
Customizing a car means changing how it looks or works so it fits what you like better, like putting on special wheels or new paint.
Brand
Hot Wheels
Hot Wheels are small toy cars that kids and collectors like to play with or keep. They look like real cars but are tiny and made of metal and plastic.
Concept
STEM
STEM means learning about science, technology, engineering, and math, which helps students get ready for jobs that use these skills.
Concept
magnet school
A magnet school is a special type of school where kids can go if they want to learn about specific subjects, even if they don't live nearby.
Concept
automotive program
An automotive program is a class where students learn how cars work and how to fix them.
Concept
diesel program
A diesel program is a class where students learn about big engines that run on diesel fuel, like trucks and buses.
Concept
carpentry
Carpentry is learning how to build things out of wood, like furniture or parts of buildings.
Concept
cybersecurity
Cybersecurity means keeping computers and information safe from hackers or bad people online.
Term
insurance
Insurance is a way to protect people and cars if something bad happens, like a crash. It can decide who is allowed to drive or learn to drive because it helps cover costs if there is an accident.
Term
flat rate shops
In some repair shops, mechanics get paid a set amount depending on how long a job should take, not by the hour. This helps them work faster and get more done.
Term
flat rate environment
In some car repair shops, workers get paid based on how fast they finish a job, not how long it actually takes. This helps the shop know how much to charge and keeps things fair.
Term
regular repair times
These are the usual times that car repairs are expected to take, so the shop knows how long a job should take and how much to charge.
Term
oil change
Changing the oil in a car means taking out the old oil and putting in fresh oil so the engine works well and doesn't get damaged.
Term
labor time guide
It's a book or system that tells mechanics how long a job should take so they can plan their work and charge the right amount.
Term
oil life index reset
After changing the oil, some newer cars need a little reset so the car knows the oil is fresh and tells you when to change it again.
Concept
independent shop
An independent shop is a car repair place that works on many different brands of cars, not just one brand.
Brand
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a car company from Germany that makes many kinds of cars, from small to sporty.
Term
hourly pay
Hourly pay means a mechanic gets paid for every hour they work, so longer jobs mean more money.
Concept
dealership
A dealership is a car company store where you can buy and get your car fixed by experts who know that brand well.
Car
Chevrolet Impala
The 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS is a cool old car that was made to be faster and look sportier than regular cars. It has a big engine and is popular with car fans.
Car
Bricklins
The Bricklin SV-1 is a special car made in Canada a long time ago. It has cool doors that open upwards like wings and was made to be very safe. People talk about it because it looks different and there aren't many of them around.
LIVE
I mean, flat rate, unless you're actually working within it,
I think sometimes it's a little hard to understand.
And I wanted the students to understand,
we get a vehicle in, do a diagnosis on it,
present it to the customer.
What does that, you know, 1.3 or whatever that,
what does that mean?
Beyond the Wrench with Jay Ganinen from Wrenchway.
Welcome to Beyond the Wrench.
My name is Jay Ganinen, and I am your host.
Today's conversation is one I think a lot of shop leaders,
educators, and industry professionals
are going to appreciate.
I'm joined by David Coker, who's
taking a really proactive approach
to preparing his students for the realities of the industry.
He's building a simulated incentive-based pay plan
inside his program, not just to explain flat rate and theory,
but to help students understand productivity, professionalism,
and what it really means to earn pay increases in the real world.
We'll talk about why he felt this was important,
how he's structuring it, and what
happens when students start connecting performance
with opportunity before they even step into a shop environment.
This is a forward-thinking conversation
about accountability, expectations,
and preparing the next generation the right way.
David, welcome to the show.
How are you today?
I'm wonderful.
Thank you, Jay.
Good, good.
Before we dive into all of that, the incentive plan
and how you're teaching flat rate,
let's start where we always do.
Every path into this industry looks a little different,
and that's part of what makes it so unique.
So take us back a bit.
How did you get started in the automotive world?
So automotive, like most of us are age,
I grew up working on, well, let's take it back even further.
I grew up with Hot Wheels.
When I first started teaching, I thought,
what made me want to be a technician?
And I looked at how I grew up, and I thought,
it probably all started with Hot Wheels.
And then we moved into slot cars, and maybe RC cars,
and bicycles, and on and on, and trying to pull things apart,
fix them, make them faster, better, models,
customizing, and things like that.
I kind of thought that's where I was going to go.
I took a little turn out of high school,
even though I did take one class of shop in high school,
but yeah, I think that's kind of where it all stemmed from,
is actually playing with Hot Wheels and slot cars.
Yeah, I think that's a lot of us, right?
That was always a lot of fun, and anything with wheels,
I know I was that way when I was growing up too,
just it was always really, really intriguing.
And I think the more fun you have with it,
the more you then become curious of how things work
and why they work the way they do.
And I think we're set up into this industry
a little bit, right?
Like if it's something that piques our interest,
it's really easy to want to get into this industry.
Yes.
Yeah, so what about after that?
Like when you get into school, how did your career path look?
So in high school, I did take one automotive class
my senior year, and worked on some buddies' cars,
my own cars and stuff like that.
And upon graduation, I thought I was going to go to work for GM
and get into their technician path program
with the local dealership.
And at the time, I was not able to get sponsorship from the dealership
and ended up going into the restaurant business.
It was pretty easy while attending a community college
and then eventually a full four-year college.
But I think the restaurant management
kind of helped me quite a bit with my management style
in the automotive industry.
And I was in the restaurant business probably eight, 10 years
and ended up in Tennessee and was looking for a way
to get back to Florida.
And I ended up landing in the automotive business selling cars.
And I'm a quiet person.
I'm not a salesperson, but I thought, well, shoot, I love GM.
I love Chevy's.
I can sell Chevy's, but where do they stick me?
They stuck me over in used cars.
So I had no real passion for it.
So I kept looking and ended up with a company called Vogue Tire.
Have you heard of Vogue Tire?
Are you familiar with Vogue?
Well, at the time, I really didn't know much about them,
but I ended up working as a subcontractor
at a Cadillac dealership doing wheels and tires, accessories,
customizing vehicles, gold kits and stuff like that.
And I started out as the technician
and really did a good job working with customers,
selling and building a customer base to the point
where I was ready to hire someone to work for me
so I could actually spend more time on the sales side
in the showroom.
And so I reached out to the local high schools.
And because I wanted someone I could train
to do things my way, I didn't want somebody
who was already working somewhere else had bad habits.
So I reached out to the local high schools
and one of the schools that contacted me back invited me
and said, yeah, come on into the shop.
Let me have you wash a couple of the kids
while they're working in there.
And that's what kind of piqued my interest in teaching.
I thought, I like what I'm seeing.
I like the kids out there working on a tire machine
or underneath the hood
or doing different things in the shop.
I said, at some point, I think I want to do this.
Fast forward 20 years later
after being through a couple of different dealerships
and here and there, I thought it was about time
that I'd get back to the industry that I enjoyed so much.
And I said, next time there's an opening in the area
for an automotive instructor, let me know.
And I prepared myself for that.
And it worked out that the last technically automotive job
I had for Fleet Maintenance,
the school that had an opening was right in the same city
where I was currently working.
So it was an easy transition.
The instructor was retiring whenever he spent some time
with him.
I didn't even really interview with the principal.
I mean, she basically asked me some questions,
but I kind of already had the job
and been doing it ever since.
Oh, what a cool story.
I have to ask, what kind of restaurant?
Well, going back a little bit, started out at Ponderosa.
I mean, in high school, I worked at Popeyes,
which was fortunately still around.
Ponderosa was no longer around.
And then I ended up with Cracker Barrel up in Tennessee,
which I really never ate at Cracker Barrel much,
but it's amazing company
and really had a good experience there.
Yeah, I loved Ponderosa when I was growing up.
The buffet style, that was a big treat for me.
I know when I was probably in middle school,
that was the place for me.
If you could ask me anywhere I wanted to go,
Ponderosa was in, I loved that place.
But that is interesting.
And then so you come back down to Florida
and the position for the teacher opens up,
the teaching position opens up.
You go, you basically just kind of get the job.
How did it look in those first few days of teaching?
I mean, was there some level of educating you
on how to teach or was it kind of picking up your own style
or how did that work?
Because the school I was at,
unlike the school I'm at right now,
I mean, it's an elective class.
So out of 120 kids, there's maybe five of them
that are really interested in getting into the industry.
The rest of them, they needed an elective.
They thought they might want to work on their own car
and they could care less.
So that's where I started to think,
why do I like to work on cars?
And that's what got that mindset thinking
of where my love of working on cars came from
is those first few weeks in that classroom.
I don't want to jump ahead, but I do want to ask,
do you see similarities in today's student
to what you had growing up where it is hot wheels,
it is maybe even Legos or something like that,
that kind of triggers that or walk me through that piece?
Well, like I do have some of my current students now,
we actually have a Hot Wheels Club here at the school
and several of my students are in that club.
So yes, and yeah, sometimes I had to tell,
all right, time to put away the toys,
we have real work to do.
Yes.
What's a Hot Wheels Club look like?
I don't think I've ever heard of that before.
I have my own club, so I never go to them,
but I know they set up a track and everything,
so I don't know what they do.
I've got a nine year old son that is obsessed with Hot Wheels
and we have the back of our living room
just completely filled with different tracks.
And I will say one thing that is really painful
is if you step on one of those without a shoe on,
it's a different level of pain, yeah, exactly.
But it is fun to see the creativity that comes along with it
and just from the collection of cars in general,
the Hot Wheels has always done such a great job
of kind of recreating some really cool cars
and coming up with their own designs,
but I know at SEMA, they had like the,
there was some type of Hot Wheels build off
where people were building cars
that could potentially be made into a Hot Wheel,
and so they just have great marketing,
they have a great product in general,
and it's interesting that that really puts it on a tee
for a lot of students.
Yes, and one of the things I always wanted to do
was work with some elementary school kids,
and fortunately we have a K through eight
that was built behind us two years ago,
and actually use Hot Wheels and Legos
and try and develop some of those interests
and maybe grow my own technicians up to this school.
As there's people listening to this,
I know this has been controversial,
we've talked about this in the past,
about the need to get involved younger and younger
with students, and I think what you're doing there
are planting those seeds, so when they do get to the point
to where they have maybe a decision to make
on what path they wanna go,
I know a lot of career path things happening
when they're eighth graders now, right?
Like they're really trying to figure out
what classes they need to be in,
so if you can plant the seeds earlier,
you find those students that really do want
to be in this industry or at least have an interest
in the classes that are true interest,
you can kind of stoke that fire a little bit
as they kind of go through their educational path, right?
You can really kind of plant those seeds
so that you're helping almost recruit to that program
when they get older.
That's the idea.
Have you seen like when you're going
into the elementary school,
what do you do with Hot Wheels?
Like when you go in, what is it that you're doing
to kind of keep their focus or maybe not even keep
their focus but pique their interest?
I'm not doing anything directly with the school yet,
but I do go out to, we have STEM fairs
with some of the elementary schools in the areas,
and I haven't taken Hot Wheels and slot cars actually,
and the kids spend a lot of time on the slot cars,
which is my school.
That's cool.
Yeah, because a lot of them have never seen it before,
so right now, my effort has been mainly focused
on the STEM fairs.
Time is one thing that none of us have enough of,
and for me to go back there at the K thread
after being here all day has been kind of difficult,
but that is something I'm working towards
amongst all this other stuff I got going on.
All right, well, you said here, let's talk about here.
Tell us a little bit about the school.
So Kirkland Ratch Academy of Innovation is a magnetic,
or magnetic, a technical magnet school.
In other words, the students in the county
have to apply to one of our STEM programs,
and when they were coming up with the idea of the school,
they took a look at the jobs in this area
and what the top 10 most needed employment opportunities were,
and that's the programs they put here in this school.
So again, we have automotive, we have diesel, welding,
building trays, which is kind of like carpentry, electricity.
We have cybersecurity.
We have digital media, which is where I am right now.
Robotics, engineering, patient care technician
was kind of like a nursing program, and biomedical.
And again, the kids have to apply to be a part of this school,
have at least a 2.0 GPA,
and they are kind of responsible for their own transportation.
The idea that they come in here and are kind of prepared
for a career, not necessarily just college,
unless it's required as part of that program path.
That is fascinating.
So how many schools are in your general area
that have students that could apply to college?
We probably have three to four main schools
that we draw from, middle schools,
ton of elementary schools.
We recently opened up a school called Angelina Academy,
which is in Central Pasco, similar to ours,
but not the same programs, not as many programs.
And then we have more of a traditional high school
with an adult education program over in West Pasco,
and a little bit different as well.
So we're kind of unique,
but we have had over the past four years that we've been open
a lot of districts come in and take a look
at how we set things up, ask us questions,
what we would do differently and all that,
and trying to model what they're building
based on what we did here.
And so what grades are you touching then?
Which grades are you teaching?
So we're high school, nine through 12.
All our program classes are downstairs.
We're kind of in a big circle,
and all the core curriculum classes are upstairs.
That is really cool.
Now, when a student applies,
you mentioned that they have to have at least a 2.0 GPA.
What else do they do to be able to get in or get accepted?
Because is it something where there's going to be a waitlist
or there's going to be people that don't get in?
There's waitlists.
So they ask the students to put your first three choices in,
which I always had kind of an issue with,
because again, if you want automotive
and they stick you in cybersecurity,
are you really gonna be focused on what you're doing here?
I mean, yes, there are advantages
to taking your core curriculum classes here as well,
but, and we do have some students that,
irregardless of what program they're in,
they're gonna try and make it here,
but it's kind of a lottery system.
And so that part right there is really fascinating to me.
So is it prioritizing the students
that put it as their first option
that get like first crack at it?
Or is it kind of a mixture of-
It's pretty a mixture of both.
I mean, for example, the K through A behind us,
I've heard that students who attend there
do have a little bit of extra priority if they apply here.
I've also heard that, well, no,
we have to be fair to all students.
So it's an equal lottery process.
So, you know, it's just a matter of applying
and, you know, as long as you got the GPA,
you can, you know, you may be chosen.
That's gotta be a challenge in and of itself, right?
Because if you've got students
that wanna get into the program,
but can't necessarily get into the program.
And then like you said,
we have the same issue up here in Wisconsin too,
with some of our schools.
And some of it is due to,
I don't know how your scheduling works down there,
but we use a block scheduling approach
at a lot of the schools.
And it's ended up with, you know,
an ag class at this one school specifically that I work with
where they've got kids that aren't interested
in the program that are in the class,
and then kids that are interested in the program,
but get put in a different class.
And I think it's a unique challenge,
but it's one that hopefully we as industry and education
can kind of work together on
to try and figure some stuff out.
Because I do get the sense,
like almost exactly what you were saying,
where if you get a kid in that,
doesn't necessarily have that as their top interest,
but needs to go pick a path,
if that's kind of preventing a student
that is interested in it from being in the class,
like to me, that's an issue.
And so like just being able to find maybe ways,
maybe that's a good question for you.
Do you have any advice for industry folks
on how to approach their schools with that conversation?
Is it talking to them at an admin level?
Is it like any ideas there?
It would almost have to be a district level.
And I really never thought about it
from the industry standpoint.
I've always thought about it from the education standpoint
that we talk when we first open,
that it would be great if either the first year,
the students are here,
that they are not tied to a specific program,
but that first year they rotate around to all the programs
and we figure out where they fit.
Or maybe between their seventh and their eighth grade year,
we do a summer program where they come in
and experience all the programs for two, three days
before they apply, so they kind of know.
And unfortunately, we really haven't gotten motivated
to do either of those,
even though we keep having the conversations.
But again, from the district perspective,
again, in order to provide equal opportunities
for all students,
I don't know how much they're willing to bend that at all.
Because again, like a pre-interview process
or something ahead of time
to where the students make sure that's where they need to be,
so it doesn't take away from somebody
who could be successful in that program.
I would also love to tie that to some form of job shadowing
or work experience as well, right?
Even with some of the younger students,
just to get in and see, does this truly interest you?
Is this something that you truly are interested in?
And I think the more you can do that,
the more of a favor you're doing for the student,
because we get this in our, I'm sure you see it too,
where we'll get a student that goes,
maybe through a high school program,
then goes into a tech school program,
spends a couple of years in the industry,
doesn't like it, and then leaves.
And I always thought, why don't we do more vetting,
not only for the good of the shops,
but for the students themselves?
Because if they're gonna come out
and spend a bunch of money on technical education
and then tools, and then decide
that they don't wanna do that,
you've put them in a, and I shouldn't say you,
the industry and the student have put that student
in a really bad spot to start off with,
because then they're digging out of a hole
that's not going to help them in the long term.
So I think it's as much about identifying students
that don't wanna be in the industry
as much as it is the ones that do,
and then finding those ones that truly do,
and as education and as industry,
kind of putting our arms around them and saying,
you know what, and this is where I love job shadows as well,
because if I can get a student
that's interested in our industry
to go see a body shop, to go see a general repair shop,
see a dealership, see a truck shop,
see kind of all of what our industry has to offer,
and then identify what makes them the happiest
or what looks the most fun to them,
or just really kind of, what really appeals to them,
I think they've got a better shot
at being more successful when they do come into our industry.
So I started to get on my soapbox there,
but it is one of those things where I'm like,
industry, we could help these schools out
by getting more exposure to young people,
and then also just being involved with your school district,
because if you sense that you're having some struggles
getting the right kids into a program,
hopefully that drives a conversation
with administration, school board, teachers,
whoever it might be to try and write the path,
otherwise you're kind of going down the wrong path
for a long time.
Right, because that is the whole reason I'm here.
That's the reason I got into it.
I need, we need kids in the industry,
and not just kids who can change parts,
but really understand what they're doing
and can keep up with the newer technology.
And I think it is coming back around
where the education system realizes that,
but again, that's why I'm here.
I'm not here to babysit a student
who wants to work on his own car.
We need kids working.
So my target is to have my students working
their senior year in an internship or a job,
like half my seniors last year,
even though it was only 12 seniors,
half of them were working in the industry
by the time they graduated.
Are you fighting any resistance to employers
with the under 18 stuff?
That's something we see as a struggle
in a lot of areas throughout the country?
It's getting better.
Here locally, we have a couple of dealerships
that have found a way to work
with their insurance carriers to do that.
Yes, it's still in certain situations,
it is still an issue.
Like, for example, within the district,
our own bus garage transportation department,
I think they have to be 18 before they could do it.
But I was like, you have a captive audience here.
If there's a way we could work an internship
with our diesel students and the bus garage,
you might have better success
keeping some technicians there.
I love that you said that
you're starting to see that change a little bit
because I'm seeing the same thing too, right?
Where you've had, especially dealerships
and some of the bigger dealership groups
have been historically just opposed
to bringing anybody under 18 in.
And the excuse for that oftentimes
is because of insurance.
What I hope, either this conversation
or other conversations we have,
I hope what it does is drive a conversation
between these groups and their insurance folks to say,
hey, listen, we've got to figure out a way
to kind of allow these younger people in
so that we can get them better training earlier,
we can get them more exposure earlier.
And I think, I've said this in a lot of content
that we've done, but when I was in the dealership world,
I put myself at fault for that
because the ownership group that I work for just said,
I was like, man, I'd love to put together
a youth apprenticeship program and do this the right way.
And they said, well, we can't bring anybody under 18 in.
And I said, why?
And they said, well, because of insurance.
And I left it at that, right?
And looking back in my career,
I wish I would have said, well,
can I talk to the insurance people?
Can I get a better understanding of why
or maybe what the restrictions are truly?
And is it just a blanket?
You can't hire anybody under 18
or is there, you can and there's these restrictions.
I just wish I would have had a better understanding
of it when I was on the industry side.
And one of the things, again,
we have a lot of support here locally from the dealerships.
They've been great and they're really behind
what we're doing here at the school.
But I think we're really set up for working
with the community and the industry
and bringing them in and working with our students.
And maybe if you can't have them at 18
until they're 18 at the dealership,
come in and work with them here
where they're covered while they're here on campus
and build that relationship.
And then maybe you will have that student
when they graduate, when they're ready,
instead of losing them to McDonald's
or some other place where they're making 15 bucks an hour
to start.
Is that something you're seeing too?
I mean, obviously there's competitive pressures
for our youth and getting,
they have options for jobs, right?
It's like just us looking for these people.
It's everybody looking for these people.
And you know what, if Amazon's paying them 20 bucks
an hour in high school or 18 bucks an hour in high school,
I remember myself as a kid,
I sure would like a nicer car
and I sure like to be able to go out with my friends
and be able to afford going out to Pizza Hut
or wherever you were going.
Do you see that still with students
where that entry level wage is still pretty important?
To a certain extent,
but I think a lot of the dealers that I talk to
are doing something similar to what I used to do.
I always used to do like,
an hourly with an entry level technician
with a flagging incentive, kind of a hybrid pay plan.
And I think a lot of them are doing something like that.
So there is an incentive for them to learn
and get their skills up and their productivity up
instead of just getting by on 15 bucks an hour.
Because to be fair, that is kind of a good starting wage
for somebody I think in this industry still.
Yes, if they have the opportunity to generate more,
if they are better prepared,
yeah, I think that works very well for them.
I agree with that.
Have you, how about when you get a student into a shop,
are you seeing them take mentorship
a little more seriously now as well?
Oh yes, but yeah, I've been very happy with what I've seen
because I've had students that I send out
and then I think they're really good.
They maybe not as a technician,
but maybe as a parts person or a service advisor.
And what I've seen is these dealers will bring in
a new student and they'll work them
through all the different areas in the dealership.
So they get a feel for everything
and kind of figure out where they might best fit,
which is perfect.
That's exactly how it should be.
I love that.
I actually, I'm a big believer
and even an experienced tech doing that same thing, right?
Like when you hire an experienced tech,
have them spend some time in different departments
or if they're in an independent shop,
go spend some time sitting by the service manager
or the service writers or in a dealership, same thing.
Like go around to the different departments.
And I think at times that helps give that person
a better perception of what that service manager
is doing as well, right?
It's not just them sitting and playing
on their computer all day.
Like there's a lot of pressure on that position
and a lot of uncomfortable conversations.
So I think it gives,
I don't think I've ever met a technician
that moved to a management position that didn't say,
this is way harder than I thought it would have been.
So giving that exposure at a younger age,
I think is a really, really smart idea.
Yes, absolutely.
If you're an automotive diesel or collision instructor
or an educator helping students explore these careers,
this is for you.
Building relationships with local shops takes time
and knowing who's willing to help isn't always clear.
ASC Connects in partnership with Wrenchway
brings schools and industry together
on one easy online platform at no cost for schools.
At the heart of ASC Connects is School Assist,
the online resource that lets you post
exactly what your program needs.
From guest speakers, shop tours, tools,
advisory committee members, career fair participants,
and even student job opportunities,
shops can see your requests and respond directly to you.
You'll also get access to instructor-focused resources,
webinars, and templates designed to save time
and strengthen industry partnerships.
Even if your school doesn't have a formal auto
or diesel program, you can still participate
to help connect interested students
with real-world opportunities.
ASC Connects is free for schools.
Get started at wrenchway.com slash solutions slash schools
or use the link in the show notes.
So you're doing so much to prepare your students
for the real world, right?
And getting into a shop, in a lot of cases,
we have a flat rate shops,
shops that are paying their technicians on flat rate.
You found it important to educate your students
a little bit more on the flat rate system.
Talk to me a little bit about that.
Why did you feel like this was important for you
to maybe better educate these folks?
There was a lot of different reasons,
but I mean, flat rate,
unless you're actually working within it,
I think sometimes it's a little hard to understand.
And I wanted the students to understand,
we get a vehicle into a diagnosis on it,
presented to the customer,
what does that 1.3 or whatever, what does that mean?
And for me, I've always told the kids,
to me, you're great in this class, it's not important.
I mean, yes, it should be a reflection
of how your performance is in this class,
but at the end of the day, when you graduate,
if you're going into this industry,
most employers probably aren't gonna care,
if you've got a C or a B or whatever.
To me, what you produce
and how your employability characteristics are,
where you're in the class is kind of more important to me,
because ultimately you will be working for somebody,
at least I hope most of them will be,
unless they think they're all gonna be internet famous
and work for themselves.
But I kind of wanted to offer something different,
because I don't want you to do it for a grade,
I want you to do it for yourself.
And I've been reflecting a lot more on time,
time is the most valuable resource they have,
and they should be investing it in themselves,
instead of on social media.
And I thought this might be a good way
to kind of incorporate some type of grading performance system,
along with some type of incentive,
and get them to think about it,
think about how they're spending their time
and investing their time.
All right, well walk me through the system,
and how you're teaching them.
So the idea is anything that they do,
related to being in my classroom,
whether it's online curriculum,
whether it's cleaning,
whether it's working on a vehicle,
whether they're working on a trainer,
anything they do related to my classroom and shop,
should have a time associated with it.
And that's probably been the biggest slowdown
of me getting this firmly in place,
is trying to figure out what that looks like,
because each class is 50 minutes.
And so I'm kind of starting out with,
well that's eight tenths of an hour.
So if you're fully productive for that class period,
that should be at least eight tenths an hour,
depending upon what you're doing.
At the end of the week,
that comes out to 4.6 approximately hours.
And so that's productive time
that you have available to you.
It's up to you how you best use that time.
And so I want to have things available
that they can either do in the shop,
or in the classroom,
or something that they have to take the initiative to do,
but ultimately they will see a reward by doing that,
the more productive they are.
So there may be some deductions for,
if you're on your phone,
or your language, or communication,
different things that we may penalize it a little bit,
or for example, you're working on a vehicle,
you're in a bad habit of setting tools up on the calorie,
and we lose the tool.
That's gonna get deducted from your pay.
So the idea is we take whatever hours
you generated that week,
we multiply it times a labor rate of a dollar per hour.
And so at the end of the week,
if you've worked out 4.6 hours, or even more,
if you're more productive, you may have five, 10 bucks.
The other component of it is they're ASCs,
a little incentive for them
to pass their student level ASC certification.
So just like in the shop, you pass an ASC,
we're gonna bump you up a dollar.
So instead of being a 15 an hour,
you're gonna be a 16 an hour.
So at the end of the week,
we'll take your pay rate times your time,
and then reduce that to a 10th of a dollar,
and start generating some income.
And go ahead.
This is awesome, as you're talking through it,
I absolutely love how you're tying everything to time,
and just teaching them how to prioritize their time,
and that time matters,
that you're not just coming in and milking the clock,
like you're in that shop environment,
this is a very great way to kind of dip their toe
in that water, and be able to kind of teach them
the right way.
When you're looking at these tasks
that get time allowed to them, how are you tracking it?
So if they clean off a work bench,
or whatever task you have them do,
how do they track their time?
So what I created years ago,
when I first came up with this idea
and trying to get it going,
is I would actually create a worksheet,
and it's based on the three C's.
This is the cause, shop is dirty,
vehicle needs inspection, whatever.
What did you determine is the cause of that,
and what's your correction?
What did you do, and have a time down at the bottom,
and have it on a spreadsheet,
and just track it on a spreadsheet?
I am trying to move that to digital
within our learning management software,
which I have not found a perfect system,
but the past couple of weeks,
I've been working on them doing a daily check-in quiz
in our learning management system,
just to get in the habit of them going on
at the end of the period,
and logging what they did to kind of build that habit.
So when it comes down to actually awarding a time to it,
they don't miss it,
because they're on the habit of doing it.
Have they started complaining about the time allowed?
Yeah, I had to put a flat rate to it.
Yeah, we're kind of not there yet.
I said, you know, I'm trying to build that habit now,
so the next nine weeks, I want to roll this out,
and that way we can use this last nine weeks
to kind of work all the bugs out.
So next school year, we have this in place, ready to go,
and it works for everybody.
In all seriousness,
what is your system for coming up with the times?
Because that is interesting, just in general.
Well, like some of the online training,
a lot of those actually have a time associated.
We do a lot of forward training,
and when they finish the course,
it gives them three hours, or one and a half hours,
or whatever, that would be kind of an example
where we would just fill that in.
The online curriculum that I use,
same thing, they finish a course,
there'll be a time associated with it.
Some of that we do have to generate.
I mean, again, going back when I first came up with the idea,
I had one of my students, I said, go out,
I want you to go through one of the student boxes,
I want you to pull all the tools out,
I want you to clean them, make sure they're in the proper box,
proper space, everything's cleaned up,
and we came up with the time, it took them about three hours.
But kind of break it down,
so if we're gonna try and do it within a class period,
are we gonna award 50 minutes, 0.8,
or are we gonna do 1.5, or what are we gonna do?
We're still working on building those times
for depending upon what the task is.
Man, this is brilliant.
I worked for a manufacturer for quite a few years,
and I got to spend a lot of time
in their warranty department,
even though that wasn't my job,
they just did a great job at training,
where just like we talked about before,
you spend time in different areas of the company,
spent a lot of time in warranty,
and then I was able to view the time study process
really up close, and it was fascinating to me
because they are doing it, they do it multiple times,
and just to set a baseline, they do it multiple times,
you'll hear technicians complain a lot about,
well, they did that,
but they did it on a perfect machine with no rust,
or no anything, like everything,
all the tools were there,
and so they have a valid complaint,
but then what I thought was interesting
was that then the manufacturer themselves
was then looking at time studies constantly, right?
So they're looking at how much time dealers were submitting
and really just trying to identify what is a fair time,
and it's gotta be fair to the OEM,
and it's gotta be fair to the dealer as well,
and to the technician,
and there's just a lot of thought that goes into it.
So the fact that you're going through this process
and trying to even work out the kinks with time,
you're setting this platform up,
or this system that I think is really, really smart,
because then it is top of mind constantly
for these students,
it's real world stuff that they're going to see,
and even if they don't go into a flat rate environment,
just understanding the importance of time
and that everything is tracked,
and that's not a bad thing,
we're not trying to hold it over your head,
it's, you know, this is what we need
to be a good profitable shop.
Just, man, I can't love this more, this is so cool.
Yeah, the actual shop repairs,
regular repair times, that's the easy part,
I always explain to them,
the first time you do anything,
it's gonna take you twice as long,
and even some oil changes we get into now,
used to be 0.3 or 0.4 was pretty standard for an oil change.
We did one the other day where it was actually 0.5
in the labor time guide,
and because we do have to be aware of some more things
on newer cars, as far as resetting oil life index
and stuff like that,
and I explained to the kids,
even an oil change, we may take that time
and we're not gonna do 0.3, 0.4,
we may do 0.8 a full period,
because I don't want you to skip anything,
I want you to still follow the process,
I wanna make sure your area is clean,
where you're done, tools are put away,
and I want you to take your time,
because that's what you're here for,
you're here to learn,
you're here to make your mistakes,
but again, we're not trying to turn things
as quickly as possible,
yes, I do want you to be productive,
but you can be productive in other ways,
let's not shortcut stuff,
and kind of what will typically just double the time,
in the labor time guy,
for anything they're doing for the first time.
How have the students taken it?
And I'm guessing a lot of them weren't overly familiar
with the flat rate system before they come into this.
Yeah, and there's still a lot of apprehension on it,
I mean, some of the kids are excited,
but I think they're looking at the long-term goal,
because I keep throwing that carrot out to them,
that hey, at the end of this, you bank it,
we may have something big that you can do with those funds,
but again, just trying to get it started
and getting all of them involved in it
is going to be really interesting to see,
because I do think a lot of them don't see
how it's important to them,
and I'm hoping, if I can get them to buy into it,
that they will see really,
if they're using their time wisely while they're here,
it's going to make them better
once they get out of the real world,
because there's so many kids come back after the years,
and I say, I wish I would have done this while I was here,
I wish I would have spent more time doing this
while I was here,
and trying to get them to understand it,
because at our age, when we were in high school,
we didn't know what we wanted to do,
we knew we liked working on cars,
and we screwed stuff up and whatever,
but again, it's hard to tell them at this age,
this is what you should be doing,
I want them to do it for them,
not for me, not for a grade,
is doing it to better yourself,
and if you don't want to do it, that's fine,
I just, again, I'm trying to help you be the best
that you can be when you get out of here.
Well, and this introduction to flat rate,
I think is so important,
because I think it's in the same boat as diagnostic,
where it can be so intimidating for a young person,
and I went to tech school for automotive technology,
and I just remember all the rumblings of like,
oh, what happens when you get on flat rate,
and just the nervousness in general,
and the more you can make somebody comfortable
with the system, and help them understand that you can,
if you do this well,
you can make a very, very good living for yourself,
and it's just a matter of kind of taking that intimidation
away from it, and then kind of getting them exposed to,
it's a system, and this is how you work the system,
this is how you best make the opportunity,
or make the best of an opportunity,
when you do get into a shop,
I just think you can gamify it a little bit, right?
You can make it a fun piece of their job,
rather than something that is dreaded,
and we see it in comments all the time,
we saw it in our just recent Voice of Technician survey,
that just got released,
like a lot of just general hatred for flat rate,
and I do think some of it comes down to,
some people don't understand it,
some people do have terrible flat rate systems,
and it's a killer,
but there are a lot of technicians
that absolutely love flat rate,
and I've had them basically yell at me at times,
or like, if you ever take flat rate away from me,
I'm out of here,
and so I think the more you can educate somebody
on a system, the more they understand it,
and then if flat rate's not for them,
there are shops that aren't flat rate, right?
So maybe that's the avenue you go,
and if that's something where you feel like
it's gonna be too much pressure for you,
go a different route,
but if you have an understanding of it,
I think you can make a really, really good living off of it.
Yeah, I think it still makes sense in dealerships
where you're always working on that same type of engineering
where you can be more productive
because you understand how things are built,
whereas an independent shop
where you may be working on a Jaguar,
then a Volkswagen, and then a Chevy,
and the engineering's a little bit different,
so it does take you longer,
and it's like working on something the first time every time,
so flat rate may be in an independent shop
is not the best thing,
and I did work for that fleet garage,
and those texts were on straight hourly,
and it was great.
I mean, I still was able to keep them productive
because I knew where the pieces needed to go
to get things done and keep that thing flowing well.
Is that something that you talk about in the classroom
in terms of the differences in pay plans
and maybe what to look for once they do go into the industry,
or is that something you don't dive as much into?
Probably not as much as I should,
because again, I am focused more on the dealership world.
To me, I did have a little experience
in an independent shop,
and I thought it was kind of tough
to be as successful as being in a dealership,
so I think starting out,
that is kind of more what I focus on
is trying to get them into the dealership
where I think they're gonna get more support
and potentially be more successful
if they're in the right position.
Yeah, and I think the understanding of flat rate
still even applies with that independent shop
with the hourly workers, right?
And the reason I say that is
they're still quoting out work that way, right?
They're still quoting out,
and we're seeing more and more shops
go to an hourly plus incentive type of bonus,
so it's still very impactful to their paycheck
if they understand time,
they understand the need to turn time in a shop,
and the more they can grasp that,
and I do think the most successful flat rate techs
have been the ones that just fully embrace it, right?
Like, I'm going to be successful at this.
We have a technician that I talk to a lot, Josh Arnold.
He's been on the podcast, I think four times,
but even with his approach,
he had talked about how much he loved flat rate
early in his career,
and it really threw me for a loop when he said it
because you don't hear that very often, right?
And so his approach, he said was,
listen, the dealership was open for more hours
than we had scheduled in the shop,
and so if I got an engine job in,
and it was going to give me 10 hours to do this engine,
I would go up to the service manager and say,
hey, listen, this is going to take me 20 to 25 hours to do,
but I'm going to do it slow
because I want to learn the right way
to do it the first time.
And so he said, from his perspective,
he didn't feel undue pressure
because he was on the same page as his manager.
There were hours over and above his working hours,
so he could take some more time
knowing that he's not going to get paid for all that time.
But for him, he viewed it as education of I'm going out
and I'm going to spend some time
learning how to do this the right way.
So the next time I do it, like you said,
I'm going to do it a lot quicker.
I'm going to have things efficiently laid out
with my toolbox,
like just everything kind of clicked for him.
And I just thought that was such a unique,
great approach to flat rate in a young person
that I had not seen before.
There's the best thing in himself.
Well, that is one of the things in our industry.
I think we've got to look at a little bit differently
from the technicians end,
is that if you are going to training,
if you're doing some of this stuff
that maybe you're not directly getting paid for,
it's just like anything else.
Like if you're not studying,
you're not reading after you graduate,
you're not trying to get better at your craft,
you're going to struggle more.
But if you have that growth mindset
and you want to be a better technician
and you're going to take that webinar at eight o'clock at night
or you're going to try to seek out that Saturday class
or just something,
it's crazy to me how much separation
somebody that has that growth mindset
can have from somebody that doesn't have that.
And once they get into the field,
they can separate themselves pretty quickly.
Yeah, and again, trying to get the kids to understand
that I want them to do it for themselves.
I don't want them to do it for me
and I want them to do it for grades
just because it's an assignment.
I want you to really dive into it to improve yourself.
And that's probably one of the toughest things
that we have to overcome,
because they are used to just doing things
to prepare for a test and whatever.
And that's why I say to me, grades don't matter.
I'm not worried about what your score is.
You're going to make mistakes, you're going to fail,
but that's how you learn.
And I'm more concerned about that.
I feel like that should be education
as a whole everywhere, right?
Like, a lot of times we'll teach to the grade
or you're teaching to try and pass a test.
Right, instead of truly understanding what you're,
you know, you're almost teaching them to memorize stuff
rather than try to understand why they're doing something.
Exactly, exactly.
I love, love, love that approach.
Do you see, like,
feedback from industry when they're looking at this?
And I'm assuming, do you have an advisory committee?
Yeah.
Yes, again, the dealership group here
has been very supportive of our program.
I'm just not real good about, because I've been there
and I know how tough it is to step out of the dealership
and take time away from what you should be doing.
But, you know, it is kind of important,
we do need to do it.
I just hate to ask that of them,
so I'm not real good about doing that as regularly as I should.
But yes, yes, I do.
You're not alone, you're not alone there.
And I, you know, I've been on a lot of advisory committees
over the course of my career
and it does, it's hard to step out.
It's hard to get away to do that.
But I also think it's incredibly vital,
incredibly important.
And for you dealerships or shops that are listening out there,
this is a way to give back,
but also get benefit in the long run, right?
Because this is your way to give real-time feedback.
This is your way to get a better relationship with the school.
And, you know, I've talked to a lot of schools about this,
but the importance of having more than just one dealer
or more than just one shop or more than one type of shop
involved in the program is really, really important
because you want kind of that feedback from everybody.
And what I've seen over the years, especially locally here
and the ones that I've been involved in,
is that the more schools get comfortable asking for stuff,
the better the relationship is with the shops, right?
Because then you're almost training the shops to get involved.
And it's not an inconvenience.
And it's really something they plan out.
And, you know, I look at the,
say for example, a dealership, that relationship,
you have to be on the same page
as your dealer principal or your general manager
because if maybe you're that service manager
that's gonna go help a school out
and the shop is busy as can be,
and then you're not there,
then you're getting in trouble, right?
And so if it's bought in from your executive team,
and so when you're missing and it's really, really busy
and you're missing for half a day, they understand why.
And there's a plan in place to cover you.
And I do think that part's very underrated
because if you're on the same page as your leadership team,
then there's no guilt.
There's no, I think a lot of times we carry that guilt
of like we're not at the desk and people are freaking out,
but you have to plan for that.
And so, you know, to me, it kind of,
it honestly breaks my heart that you feel that way
about shops getting involved
because you don't wanna bother them
because from my perspective, industry,
we've gotta step up here.
And to me, there's no excuses.
Like we have to be involved with schools,
we have to be able to bring resources,
we have to be able to do these things
to support the programs in a way to where
they're not just struggling to get by,
but they're thriving and they are really,
they have all the resources they need.
They're struggling with something with administration
or budgetary, like if we have to show up
to a school board meeting,
we're showing up to a school board meeting.
Like just all of the things that we need to do
as an industry, and I just never want a school
to feel guilty about asking, right?
Like that's my big thing.
Yeah.
And again, I think that's more me
because of my background.
I know how important it is for me to be there
and not miss things that maybe if I was there,
I couldn't take care of and address properly.
But, you know, again, local dealership community
is very supportive and I'm sure, you know,
whenever I put it out there that,
hey, we need to do an advisory committee meeting
before the end of this semester,
it's not gonna be a problem.
And I think one of the things that helps that
and other schools that I've seen,
because I am an ETL for ASC,
I saw a good in many schools
and the schools that have a lot of members,
yeah, you're not gonna get all of them to every meeting,
but you'll have enough to have a very productive meeting
because you have so many people participating in that.
Yeah.
And I think when you get more people there,
it drives better conversations
in those advisory committee meetings too, right?
Because then it feels like one person will say something.
And even, I think the beauty of it
when you have a really good advisory committee
is that you'll have competitors talking openly about stuff.
And I think maybe 20 years ago,
I don't think that would have ever happened.
So now you're starting to get them building up.
And if their desire is to have a strong program,
they're gonna kind of put the swords down
and hopefully help the program as a whole.
And I think that's what's needed across the country.
We've got to put the swords down
and we've got to support these programs.
Yeah, because we're all in the same situation.
I mean, we need the kids in industry,
so everybody kind of needs to work together
to help us do what's best for them.
Yeah, I agree.
So as we're talking,
I do want to put a bow on the flat rate education side here.
Any elements that you want to add to this
as you build this program?
Because I think you've got something here.
I think you've got something really, really cool.
So the only thing we didn't really touch is
what the kids could use those funds for.
And I came up with five categories.
The easiest one is food and drink,
because the kids are constantly running out
to the vending machine.
They come in with polar pops or Starbucks.
They're trying to sneak out and go to McDonald's
or Chick-fil-A or something for lunch.
So that's an easy one,
but I think that's really an area that I can show them,
hey, if you hadn't spent $3 on this here,
you would have this much down the road
is where I want to go with that.
But when the kids pass all 10 of their ASCs,
I get them a tool cart,
and so I want to have an area
where they can actually start purchasing tools.
I'll have some tools that they can buy
to start building that cart
once they pass all 10 of their ASCs.
We want to have an area for swag,
shirts, hats, cups, whatever,
with school logo or manufacturers logos.
We can get them, if they like Mazda,
we have some Mazda stuff.
They like Toyota, we have some Polo stuff
that they can buy some swag.
And whether that's here at the school
or ideally, if I can work it with the manufacturer,
I would love them to say,
hey, I'm going to go stop by Toyota this weekend.
I'm going to go pick up a t-shirt
with some of my money that I earned at the school.
And so that's starting to build that relationship
with that dealership.
Experiences, we have a local private track
that I would love to provide some of the kids
the opportunity to use their funds down the road for that
or whether it's movies, gift cards, whatever,
some type of experiences.
And then again, my big idea is either,
we always have cars donated that need work
and then what do you do with them when they're done?
Well, I thought if I've got kids that will actually
set out in their mind that the four years that they're here,
they're going to bank all that money.
And I haven't really done the math on it
to see what it could potentially be.
But let's say they have $5,000 when they graduate.
Would it be great if they could buy that car
or go to the local dealership and say,
hey, I want to apply this towards the purchase
of a new or used car and have that.
So that's again, one of my grand ideas
and whether or not that's going to work, I don't know.
But again, teaching the kids how if you really want something,
you're going to earn it instead of it being given to you.
That is awesome.
So are you looking, how do you fund that?
Like, is there something industry can help out with there
and trying to?
That's kind of why I posted it on Wrenchway
in the first place, because I really want to get it going.
The food and drink stuff is easy.
I get on the stands or whatever and buy the stuff.
That's the easy part.
The other stuff is a little bit more involved.
And over the years, the dealers that I've talked to
are very supportive of it.
And again, just trying to figure out what that looks like
is kind of where we're at.
But the dealers that I have talked to
are very interested in trying to participate now.
To the vehicle purchase thing,
I don't know if that's going to happen.
But I thought, well, shoot, you've got to use car
that you're in for four grand or five grand.
And you can mark it down a couple of grand
and use those funds.
Maybe that's what we need to do.
I don't know.
But I would love to see the kids work
towards something big like that
if they can really commit themselves
to not spending it on the vending machine or whatever.
And I like the guy that bought the airplane
was Mountain Dew Caps, right?
Yeah.
You get the, I think it's a great idea
to have that aspirational thing to go toward too, right?
Where, and I think there too, it teaches them
the power of saving and the power of, you know,
working towards something and not getting
that immediate satisfaction where applicable, right?
Like if they can work toward a bigger goal,
that would be phenomenal.
That would be really, really cool.
I just, man, this is cool.
I think for those of you in industry
that are in that area, you need to take this seriously.
You need to reach out to David
and try to start conversations here
because I truly think that this is a really innovative approach,
like an innovative approach, right?
Like it's different than any other school
I've ever heard do it.
I think tying any program
that can really have that tie to time
is, that's very, very smart.
So I give you a lot of credit for putting this together
and having maybe the open-mindedness
to be able to approach it this way.
I just, a ton of credit to you for this.
This is so cool.
Yeah, just, you know, even since I started 12 years ago,
I've always thought there's gonna be a better way
for us to do this.
And I think where I'm at now, I'm closer to what that is.
And if we can get some of these things in place
and again, working closer with industry,
I think we can get there.
And I think it could be very cool,
especially if enough of the kids really buy into it
and see the benefits of doing it.
Oh, I hope we get your message out.
All right, we've got some fun questions
to end the show with for you
and just to kind of get to know you type of questions.
What was your first car?
First car was a 67 Impala SS.
Whoa.
That's a pretty awesome car to start with.
Yeah, it was the month or so I got to drive it
until I pulled the motor out and started going through it.
True car guy.
What is your favorite kind of food?
So my favorite kind of food,
and these are kind of the questions that I go over
with the kids at the beginning of the year
because I want to get to know them.
So, you know, my favorite food, you know,
I always asked the kids, I said, you know,
if you could only eat one type of food
the rest of your life, what would it be?
And for me, it's tough.
He's either a prime river salmon,
but I think salmon's probably the better choice
because I could eat salmon or rice almost every day
if it's done right.
Healthy option too.
You're good there.
Yeah, I like that.
We like to ask like a routine type question.
So if you're comfortable answering,
do you wake up at the same time every morning?
I wish.
You know, I need to be at my 530,
but there's some mornings like this morning
I wake up at 430 and my head start racing
and I start thinking about,
well, what am I going to talk about today on this?
And I just can't get back to sleep.
And sometimes it's 330, sometimes it's 230,
or, you know, sometimes I do sleep until the alarm,
but yeah, it's tough.
I'm the same way you are.
Yesterday morning, I woke up at 2 a.m.
and I had heard somebody, I forget,
some influencer online talking about how
you're supposed to view those as test days
because like I went to bed at 10,
I got four hours of sleep
and I had a full day of everything.
And I think that's why I woke up, right?
It was like, I was thinking about my schedule
and your mind gets racing.
And then by that point, when you wake up,
you're just like, I may as well get up and start working
because I just, if I don't,
I'm just going to sit here and stare at the ceiling
for the next six hours.
Mm-hmm, yes.
Well, this is awesome.
I just, I hope anybody that's listening
and especially people that are local to your area,
I hope they get involved and at least reach out.
Is that okay for them to do if they listen to this
and they're interested in talking with you?
Absolutely, yeah, and I would say
my goodness for doing it, yes.
Yeah, yeah.
And what's the best way for them to reach you?
Probably my email, you know, phone does work,
but a lot of times I don't have my phone on me.
I kind of like to set an example for the kids.
So I do try and use email as best contact,
which is David, I'm sorry, D-K-O-C-H-E-R,
addPASCO, P-A-S-C-O, dot K-12, dot F-L, dot U-S.
And we'll get a link to that in the show notes,
so that if people want to reach out to you
and want to participate in this program, they can do so.
I just, from my perspective,
when I see somebody trying something different and unique
and something that I think is going to have a huge benefit
for the industry, should it take hold,
I want to get as many resources behind it as we can.
So for those of you that are listening,
if you can reach out to David
and talk to him about what he's doing with this program,
I think we as an industry need to bring the support to him
and really support this program,
because this is different.
This is something that could really, really have a big impact
on those entry-level technicians
as they come into our industry.
They get a better understanding of how we operate.
And I think it might set that stage for more success
once they get in early on in their career.
So David, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on.
I hope we need to have a follow-up conversation to this
down the road, so that we can kind of track the progress
of this and continue to bring it the spotlight
that it deserves.
So kudos to you.
Thanks for being on the show.
Hope to do it again.
Yeah, thank you.
And again, we didn't get to talk about automotive history.
So yeah, if we don't follow up, we can talk about that.
We could have a whole podcast just on that.
We talked as we were kicking this off,
that David's a big car guy.
I love automotive history and learning about the people
that came before us in this industry.
And my goodness, I feel terrible.
We didn't get a chance to talk about any of that.
So we got a lot to talk about yet.
Yeah, because we have two Bricklins.
You know what a Bricklin is?
I don't know what a Bricklin is.
Okay, so we'll save that for a later time.
Well, thanks again for being on the show.
Can't wait for the next time.
Sounds good.
With ASC, we run the ASC Connects community,
which empowers shops and dealerships
with reliable data, school connections,
and industry insights,
while helping grow the future technician workforce.
You can learn more by visiting wrenchway.com.
Thank you so much for listening.
We'll see you next week.
About this episode
David Coker shares his journey from a childhood passion for Hot Wheels to becoming an automotive instructor who innovatively prepares students for real-world shop environments. He discusses implementing a simulated flat rate pay plan to teach students about productivity, professionalism, and earning pay increases. The conversation also explores engaging younger students through STEM fairs and Hot Wheels clubs to spark early interest in automotive careers. David highlights the importance of accountability and practical experience in education, aiming to bridge the gap between classroom learning and industry expectations.
Original notes
David Kocher, Automotive Instructor at Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation, joins us to explain how he introduced a simulated flat rate pay plan to help students understand how flat rate works early in their careers. David walks us through his background, the ins and outs of the incentive-based system heβs developing for his class, and how students are responding to the experience.
Watch the video podcast on YouTube
About the Episode
- Host: Jay Goninen, WrenchWay, [email protected]
- Guest: David Kocher, Kirkland Ranch Academy of Innovation, [email protected]
Links & Resources
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ASE Connects brings shops, dealerships, and schools together in one structured network to strengthen the technician pipeline. By making it easier to connect, collaborate, and support students through job shadows, internships, and classroom engagement, ASE Connects helps schools build stronger programs and helps shops develop a more consistent, local source of future technicians. Learn more:
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Beyond the Wrench
Jay Goninen
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