Webinar Replay: Building Effective Educational Partnerships

We still need to engage with the schools, because that's part of the pipeline for the next generation.

Beyond the Wrench with Jay Gannon from Wrenchway.

Hello everyone and welcome. Thanks for joining us today for our session on Back to School,

Building Effective Educational Partnerships. I'm Jay Gannon and I'll be your moderator. The goal of today's conversation is simple.

To explore how shops and schools can work together more effectively to support the next generation of technicians.

Whether you've already started building partnerships or you're wondering how to begin, we'll share practical ideas you can take back and put you to use.

I'm excited to be joined by two great guests, my old friend Tom Wozniak, who is a diesel instructor at Madison College just outside or inside of Madison, Wisconsin.

He brings a lot of perspective from the schools and from the students end, and he'll bring a lot of value to this conversation.

I'm also joined by John Gustafson, who runs Gustafson Brothers in California and has many, many years of working with schools.

Really does have a deep passion and care for that next generation is doing a lot of really, really outstanding things to really help get the industry in a better place.

So over the next hour, we'll talk about how to get those partnerships started, what makes them work and how to make sure they last.

I think that's a really, really big key to this conversation is not just starting that partnership, not just having that surface level relationship, but really, really diving in to understand what it is that makes those longstanding relationships that are beneficial to everybody.

As far as an agenda, this is a loose agenda. These two guests that I have, I think we're going to have a really fun conversation.

And because I'm the one providing the guardrails around this conversation, there's a good chance it could go off the rails here.

So the first point, how can shops connect with schools in meaningful ways, traits of effective industry partners, building trust and credibility, smart communication and timing.

This is a really, really key one, guys, that we'll talk a lot about tracking and sharing your impact and then streamlining efforts with some of the stuff we're doing here at School Assist.

I'm going to stop sharing my screen now. Welcome, guys. How are you?

Great. Thanks, Jay, for having us on.

It's a great Thursday.

It's a great Thursday right before a holiday weekend. Looks like we have a great crowd on hand to watch us here.

So I want to start with some really brief introductions, who you are, where you're coming from, and maybe a little bit about your background. Tom, would you go ahead and start?

Sure. Thank you.

Hello, everybody. My name is Tom Wozniak. I am an instructor here at Madison Area Technical College.

I teach in the Deasville Heavy Truck and Deasville Heavy Equipment Programs here at Madison College.

I am also the Associate State Director for SkillsUSA Wisconsin.

I'm a post-secondary. I've been that for about a dozen years.

And I'm also the world skills expert for TeamUSA or doing international competitions.

And I've been really excited about that. This coming competition in Shanghai, China,

I'm actually going to be the industry designer designing the complete competition for Shanghai, China for the Deasville competition.

So just a little bit about me.

Tom's got some great stories. I think the last in-person one you went to, is that Russia?

No, that was in France. And last summer in France.

Yeah, yeah. And it's pretty incredible when you get on that world stage.

If you ever get a chance to talk with Tom about the world skills experience, it is insane.

So just an absolute pleasure to have you back with us here, Tom.

John, how about you? Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Well, mine is not quite as exciting as Tom's there.

But 55 years ago, I graduated the local Huntington Beach High School and opened the shop with Brother Frank and I.

And we just started fixing the local area, Volkswagen, Beatles, Buses, Type 3s, and on came the rest of it.

And we just took the next challenge every time it came to us and we just expanded based on customer demand.

And we're now a team of just under 70 people with a collision center, mechanical repair, two locations.

And we're deeply invested in next generation training that we hope becomes a standard and allows the next generation process to build.

And dealing with schools in this particular conversation we're having today is very timely.

Yeah, and John, as you'll find actually both John and Tom, as you'll find as we go through this conversation are deeply passionate about this industry,

are advocates for everything that the industry advocates for making the industry get to a better place, right?

We are a great industry as a whole.

It's just being able to maybe refine some of these things.

And really the reason we're here today is to talk about that school to shop relationship.

And there are a lot of struggles with shops across the country in trying to really maybe even define what their communication strategy is with a school.

And at times we've got people here in the audience that are coming from a variety of different backgrounds, Tom.

Some of them have great relationships with schools.

Some of them are just getting started out and kind of seeing the value of those partnerships.

How do you recommend that shops make that first connection with the school?

If maybe they don't have that connection yet or they're not overly familiar with the school, what are some best practices for a shop that's out there to make that first connection?

Well, when I think about this, Jay, I think about it as twofold.

I guess one, I would think about it, are you trying to connect with a local community college?

Or are you trying to connect with a high school that's out there?

Because it's two different things.

I think if a local shop is trying to connect with a community college, what you have in there is usually instructors who have been in the industry, who have had industry connections,

or in the past have had, you know, where there's other industry partners that are already connected to a community college and it's a little bit easier to find the information.

Unlike a high school where you're dealing with a CTE instructor who has not been in the industry, a lot of times those high schools don't know how or who to connect with.

And in your local districts or your local communities, I mean what I would be doing is I'd be reaching out specifically to those high schools and seeing whether or not they would love to be some type of a partner

or have you been some type of a sponsor, even on the simplest things.

And what I mean by doing a simple connect, just, you know, we all hate those cold calls of people coming in and, you know, the salesman doing these cold calls.

But a lot of times as being in the community and saying, hey, I'm XYZ dealership or I'm XYZ, you know, XYZ industry shop in your community,

and I would love to have an opportunity to talk to you and how can you and I work together to better fulfill what you need in the classroom and to better help me in the long run with possible employees or things of that nature.

So a lot of it is just taking a look right now in your local community and making those contacts with those high schools and those community colleges.

So that's what I would say is just beyond as far as getting started once you're there, then you can start building those relationships and getting on and being part of advisory committees where you're actually advising these programs

and helping them build their curriculums in the right way, which is, you know, growing towards that industry standard.

So, you know, that initial is going to be the hardest.

And but that's the most important is getting that initial contact with that particular school.

Well, Tom, you and I have had a lot of conversations over the years about this very topic.

I think one of the missteps that a lot of industry makes is that they only show up at a school when they need something right when they need a student and I don't know if you recall this but I was sitting in your office.

Many, many years ago, and you had played me your voicemails.

It was I think the week of graduation time and you played your voicemails and it was like 17 shops or something crazy like that that we're calling you up at graduation time asking for your best graduate.

Yep.

I think a lot of a lot of shops go about this the wrong way to start and maybe that's why they're not building that relationship.

True.

I have to agree with you on that.

I mean everybody and don't get me wrong.

Everybody has that idea that I'm going to go to this community college.

I'm going to go to this rotational high school.

I'm going to go to these locations.

Hey, I want your best back.

I want your best person.

That person's probably been spoken for for a long time and I know later in this conversation, I hope that we get to that.

That's what we do to set you up as an industry working with these schools and actually having the choice of that best individual.

We definitely got some ideas on how we can help you on with that.

John, I think your approach is very unique and your outlook on the industry, not just your shops but your the industry as a whole.

If you look at those relationships to start with, what was it in your mindset that made you approach this differently than a lot of people do, right?

I don't get the sense that you're the guy that calls it graduation time.

You are heavily involved with schools in your area.

So the easy answer is there's no easy way.

You have to, as a shop owner, you have to set aside time.

You have to make that as a business decision to be involved with the local schools.

And we're involved with the local high school fairly deeply and we're involved with the local community college and the pay schools, the post secondary pay schools that serve our region.

And it really takes, you have to build that into your process.

Every day is busy as a shop owner.

But from my perspective, I had to delegate away enough of my work that I could participate or I could delegate and I could send a representative to be at the school.

So it is about the relationship and it goes both ways.

The school should need industry to come and do speaking on specific topics or talking about career paths that are available, not only just at our facilities, but in the industry in general, all the available career paths.

And the school should have a field trip and come to a shop and come and see what industry is about.

And the shop should approach the school system and say, we have room for two or three interns.

And take the interns when they're not going to school, bring them and do some intern work, place them with a mentor and let them be the mentee for the time that they're there.

And work with outside agencies to provide stipends for those young people to come and get paid.

Not in wages, but in stipends to have attended and shown interest in what we do.

John, I've got to pick one thing you said out of there is something that I think is very, very important, which is that planning stage, right?

A lot of times, I think, in a shop environment, we get trained to put out fires each and every day and it can be really, really challenging to prioritize this.

And without planning, it's really, really hard to make the time in your schedule to make these relationships happen, right?

You talked about how there's no easy way and it takes intentionality.

How effective is that planning process for you in making sure that you're setting aside the time to actually be able to do these things?

So we discovered the traction readings or traction training about the EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system.

And in that system, it's really a guideline that all shops or all businesses really could adopt.

The vision traction organizer has your core values and your core focus.

And in that process, you begin to delegate your seats or your responsibilities, things that have to be done and you either do it yourself from your seat as a leader, as a visionary in the system,

or you delegate it to someone on the staff to go and be that person to visit the schools because in the vision, you have to perpetuate the next generation.

We're all aware that we need the next generation to be able to train up and be that next generation.

And we now can demonstrate how within a seven-year period, someone can enter our profession, train up a career path of their choice,

be good enough to be in the six-figure income category and not have any college debt.

There's a lot of benefits to this industry.

I think that's one of the things that as we get on a lot of this type of content, we try to share.

And for those of you that are listening today, I think the more voiceless you can be about the opportunities that are out there.

And I was just talking to somebody the other day about that experience technician that's out there and how do we drive more of the retention side so that it is easier to pull young people into the industry

by making our more experienced technicians happy.

There are a lot of really happy technicians out there that love what they do each and every day.

I think we need to maybe as an industry do a better job at getting them to tell their stories.

Now, kind of bringing it back to the industry partner versus industry partner and school relationship.

I think, you know, Tom, we had talked, this is one of the things that I think is a frustration from the industry side.

I think it's an industry frustration from the school side, which is maybe turnover on both sides, right?

And as we've built out school assist and really put a lot of time and effort into that.

One of the things and opportunities that we have seen is that just having updated contacts for a school can be hugely impactful and vice versa, right?

That school that's working with the shop, maybe that service manager that's held that relationship for many years has now gone to a different job.

And so as we've really kind of, I think, discovered this at a macro level where you're seeing some difficulties with these relationships,

because maybe you do start that relationship and you've started to make some headway,

and then all of a sudden your contact at the school or the shop goes away,

depending on which side you're on, whether it's school or shop.

How do you go about getting around that, like navigating through maybe turnover at a school or, in your case,

turnover at a shop if you're trying to build those relationships?

Well, let's talk about, first of all, turnover at a dealership or a turnover at a shop.

When you make these particular relationships, whether it's with a shop manager or dealer principal or an owner,

I mean, these are the things that you should be making a relationship with in the actual organization itself.

When I say that, it's just more than one individual.

So if you're making a relationship with, let's say, the shop manager of a shop,

that should also be included with the owner and letting the owner or the dealer principal know exactly what's going on

and being very transparent within that particular realm.

So if that individual does happen to leave or get promoted or move to a different location,

that that relationship still continues and that the new person that's coming in understands the importance of that relationship

and continue on with that relationship.

It doesn't just go with the relationship with yourself.

It's the relationship with the business and not with yourself.

That's the thing that we have to look for.

And it's kind of the same thing here with the schools.

When you're looking, and again, for the community college here, when you're looking into a program,

there's several different instructors and we're not all going to leave at the same time.

But also getting the deans involved.

If you're doing into the high schools, there's other CTE instructors that you probably work with,

maybe not in a direct format.

But let's get the principals involved, the vice principals involved to work with these partnerships.

So if there is turnover like that into the schools, that the upper people, the vice principals, the principals, the deans,

other people within the program can keep those relationships going.

And so we don't have that little lull or misunderstanding between the partnerships between the school and the actual dealership and or shop itself.

I just think that's depth of relationship, right, Tom?

You and I, when we first started working together 20 years ago, I think both of us were intentional about growing that relationship, right?

I was at the school quite a bit.

You took an interest in me in terms of helping guide me early in my career.

And it's one of those things where we've always had each other's phone number.

We've always known what was probably going on in each other's personal lives.

We talked before the show started that you attended my wedding, right?

There's, I think, maybe a depth to that relationship that even if something were to happen where you go to a different position,

you're probably going to at least give me a heads up or you're going to let me know that there's been a change at the school.

I think you've even done that with the other programs within your school, right?

If something's changing in one of the other programs, giving me a heads up as to what's going on.

That is where I think the major differences between a surface level relationship and that deeper relationship like you and I have,

that I think a lot of industry could learn from, like get involved with the school, be there, especially those early days.

It sounds so cliche, but bringing pizza on a Friday for the students can be really impactful to be able to just sit around and talk shop with all of the students.

I think there are a lot of elements and you've seen it over the years, Tom, those deep partnerships, that's really kind of what it's all about.

Well, it is.

I want to make a comment to something that John had mentioned earlier.

Having yourself come into an actual classroom and talk about the opportunities within this industry, not everyone's going to be a technician.

We kind of talked about that earlier.

Not everyone can be a technician.

We still need parts personnel.

We still need service writers.

We still need sales personnel.

So there's a lot in this industry that people who are, you know, want to be involved in this industry, but maybe just can't turn that wrench or isn't that individual who is that skillful.

They have other skills that can continue to grow within this industry and have someone from industry have John come into your school in your classroom and say this is all of the areas that you can go in.

These, you know, and the importance of learning this industry from a technician standpoint helps you in all of these other positions.

So you're talking about bringing a pizza in on a Friday and saying, hey, we're going to have this little conversation with your class.

Perfect opportunity how, you know, you're taking some time out of your day.

How much does a couple of pizzas cost or maybe three, four, five pizzas cost?

But taking a half an hour in our at a local school talking to the students about opportunities, not just being a technician, but other opportunities of where we can actually go in this industry.

And this is a, this is your prime example, kind of like what you're talking about these depths of relationships.

So that's important.

That is extremely important.

John, what does that strong industry relationship look like to you?

I mean, when you look at, I'm sure you're not the only shop in your area with strong partnerships with schools.

When you see a shop that truly connects with the school, what does that look like?

So I can only speak to the way we do it.

We are subject matter experts when it comes to how to run a shop.

And we're deeply involved in the transportation economy.

So we can be experts at explaining to a group of students.

These are the opportunities available to you the career paths that you could choose to follow.

And they are, like Tom said, their service advising their in collision, their estimators, parts, people, body repair, people, painters, mechanical service specialists.

They could be specialists all the way down to, we consider diesel, a specialty inside of the auto service specialist realm.

So I think, I guess to answer the question, I see it as the shop owner needs to invest with the education community and be there to be a subject matter expert to explain how it is in the field.

And, and again, vice versa, the school needs to come to field trips to show the students what it's like out in the shop environment.

Yeah, and I think we learned that maybe even the hard way as we built Wrenchway that the school, I think the relationship that both sides desired, but maybe at times didn't have the time for we needed a way to streamline that and not to make this about Wrenchway at all.

But that was the whole point of it to start with was, hey, we see that there are schools that are in desperate need of help.

And it's a variety of different things that they need help with.

The shop side were like, we want you to come into our shops.

We want you to see what we have to offer.

We want you to get maybe that job shadow or that internship apprenticeship.

We want you in our doors to see what this is all about.

And I think being able to streamline that relationship was really, really important to us or very much is still very important to us because I think a lot of shops do get lost on in the weeds on a day to day basis.

And the more that we can paint visibility there and the more that I think us as an industry are able to come to terms with the fact that there's not like a light switch where we're just going to turn on and have an abundance of technicians that we actually have to put the work in.

And we have to do some things.

And, you know, John, to your credit, doing some things that maybe you didn't grow up with, right?

Or like that maybe industry didn't overly care about schools back then.

But it is something that I think we're seeing a changing of the tide right now where there are more and more people interested in developing that next generation of technician, developing that next generation of every spot in their shop, right?

And so, you know, as you look at the evolution of this over the years, is that something you can kind of get the sense that maybe we're making some headway on as an industry or maybe we've still got a long way to go?

Well, I believe the door's open and we're starting to make progress in that the smart shops or what I call a champion shop who gets it, wants it and has capacity, can play in that arena and help bring up the next generation in concert with the school.

And the shop can provide parts that have come off of cars as demonstrators for the instructors class that day or somewhere in their curriculum.

And we can provide on the collision side damaged parts that can be straightened and then thrown away.

You know, there's a million ways to interact, but it really takes a good relationship between the shop and the instructor.

And whatever you need, just let me know and if I can do it, I'll get it.

And if I don't, I'll probably tell you where to get your resource.

So it's really communication.

And I think what Wrenchway is doing by making that bridge is like you said, the cold call is always difficult for a shop owner to drive over to the school, go to the office.

Hey, I want to talk to your auto shop guys and go meet the instructor.

They're busy, you know, make a relationship start.

I think your bridge gets that started for us, for all of us.

And we should all participate with our local schools and help each other out.

Yeah, I agree.

Did you know that Wrenchway has partnered with ASE to grow school assist?

It's a free solution designed to help auto, diesel and tech ed programs connect with local shops and dealerships.

Thousands of schools across the country have used school assist to get resources and support, including tool and equipment donations, advisory committee members, shop tours, guest speakers and much more.

With school assist, Wrenchway and ASE are making it easier to bring education and industry together to promote and improve technician careers in automotive and diesel.

School assist will always be free to schools to help them connect students with the industry and get the resources they need.

To learn more and sign up, visit wrenchway.com slash school dash assist.

Link is also in the show notes.

Now, Tom, I've sat in on a lot of your advisory committee meetings over the years, and I think I've shared this with you in the past.

But we talk about advisory committee meetings as a whole.

And one of my pet peeves is if you have an advisory committee put together, not saying yours, you've got a great advisory committee in general.

But there are times where I've sat in obviously other schools, advisory committees where maybe folks don't talk or they don't communicate what they really need in the industry.

And I think we've all sat in those advisory committee meetings where it's just the constant like, okay, what kind of training do your students need when they come into industry?

Well, it kind of goes back to electrical.

And at times it feels like it's almost the same conversation over and over again.

What advice would you give to an advisory committee member?

You know, you're trying to start this relationship out.

You don't want to be overly critical of the school, but you're trying to help the school.

What would you tell somebody that's maybe sitting in their first advisory committee meeting or maybe they want to be a better contributor to their advisory committee?

Okay.

Well, a couple of things I want to kind of dissect on this here, Jay.

I said, first of all, what we need to look at here, especially coming from industry.

And John, and if you don't believe what I'm saying here is wrong, please correct me on this.

But this is a long-term investment.

Industry should be making a long-term investment into the schools.

What I mean by a long-term investment is that this isn't going to fix overnight.

This is one of these things where these partnerships have to last for a long time.

And what you're trying to do is you're trying to better the industry as a whole.

Even though you're being involved with a school and having a great partnership with one, two, three different schools,

have an understanding that you're actually bettering the industry as a whole, which in turn, long-term, is going to help me in my business.

Yes, I still want to have that best guy that comes in, but it will actually help the whole industry as a whole.

And that's kind of the first thing as far as long-term.

Now, coming back to your advisory committee question, have that in mind.

So first of all, when I talk about advisory committee, it's great to sit on an advisory committee.

Advisory committees, you have the direction or you have the push to help build the programs in the way that you see fit.

An example here for us, we just started a, you know, we split up our diesel.

We always were diesel and heavy equipment.

So basically truck and heavy equipment.

So we were just kind of like an umbrella over the whole industry.

Now, because of our advisory committee, what we wanted to see is we wanted to see a more specialized truck technician and then also a more specialized heavy equipment technician.

So we've got two full programs here going on where we've got heavy truck and heavy equipment driven by our advisory committee.

And they're the ones that are saying, you know, hey, don't get me wrong, you've done great, you know, we love this,

but now things are getting a little bit more specialized, kind of like what John was saying before.

And we want those specialized heavy equipment guys and we want those specialized heavy truck guys.

And when you're, again, coming back to this advisory committee, like you said, Jay, yeah, there are some of them that just kind of sit there and they don't say anything.

But there are the other ones over there that you can't shut up either.

I'm sorry to say that.

I feel like you're pointing at me with that, Tom.

Oh, no, no, no.

No, no, no, it's not that.

I mean, there are great conversations.

When you're in this advisory, you know, when you're in the actual meetings, have great pertinent conversations about the topics that are going to be there.

But when you're sitting there and you're trying to help drive that program to be a better program, to get the updated curriculum,

and like what John was saying, ask as far as what do your, you know, what does your program need?

You know, listen to what they are saying and actually say your piece as far as the advisory committee is starting.

Get in there and say your piece.

If our advisory committee wasn't talking so much about, you know, we would like to see this, this was a process to when you take a look at what has to happen here in the state of Wisconsin to actually set and build a program.

A completely different program.

This was a seven-year process before we finally have everything approved and say, yep, this is what we're going to build.

So when I start talking about this is a long-term investment, that's what I'm meaning is that this is a long-term investment.

When you're dealing with the high schools and you're dealing with the community colleges, especially the ones that are run by the states, these things roll a lot slower than what, you know, we're used to in industry.

So it is a long-term investment.

It will happen.

Maybe sometimes you feel it's too slow, but it will happen eventually.

And your part is extremely important, you know, being part of that advisory committee, being heard, you know, our deans sit in on the advisory committee and they hear it.

So we've also had our president of our college at times sit in our advisory committee and they hear what, you know, industry is saying or our advisory committee is saying about our programs.

So Jay is right, we got a super strong advisory committee.

We've got over 75 members to our advisory committee.

I'm around the Madison area.

I should say Madison and throughout our whole district.

So very good advisory committee here.

Yeah, I've been really lucky to be a part of a lot of those meetings.

And I think, again, going back to depth of relationship, there have been conversations where the more you understand the program, the more you're involved with the program,

you have better things to go to that advisory committee meeting with in terms of communication of things that you can bring up that I feel like are good ideas.

And I just think back to several advisory committee meetings with several schools where something like maybe facilities planning where you're, you know, you're going to need additional capacity to fit more students.

And being able to bring that up because it does take a long time and it does take a lot of insight from industry and from the instructors to be able to maybe start to carve out that path to where it is realistic to get facility expansions or tool expansions

or whatever it is that you need.

It takes time. And I think when you go into those meetings, and if you are familiar with the program, those are those are some things that can really help out the instructors are just having that voice to be able to say, Hey, we need to be looking at this, we need to be looking at

different opportunities to improve the program to keep that draw of students coming into the program. So, John, how about you on your side.

If you're sitting in an advisory committee meeting of some type.

Can't imagine that you're too shy in those meetings I'm sure you probably have some things that you want to say when you're in there.

I do the some of the early advisory committee meetings I went to it was just a formality that they show their leadership that they have industry members.

Then they already had it figured out what they wanted to have happen and they didn't really listen to what industry had to say.

That has changed and now we have a little better dialogue.

We even we volunteer for the ASC qualification when they when they recertify and we get some respect.

But it took a while to get that respect because staff changes at the school level occur and you lose your you lose your contact.

So we talked about that earlier, you really just have to stay in touch with the school.

And even if you get personnel changes, you just have to step up and say, Hey, I'm your I'm your guy in the field.

I'm your I'm your local advisory club member and you can call on me for guest appearances.

I can give you I can give your students something fresh to learn, you know, about the industry or or if you need a specific industry expert will will arrange that to bring them that person for the day.

So you have to be active.

It's it's if you're passive, it's just going to fall apart.

I want to talk about that active piece, Tom, I'm going to go back right back to you again here.

What is the power of consistency in that relationship, right?

I think a lot of shops that want to start that relationship with schools, they'll go for the home run swing and try to make the flashy thing.

But then they go away or they aren't as active.

They're not committing their time as much as they should over the course of any given year.

How powerful is it to have that consistent shop that that shop that consistently shows up when you need them?

Well, for here, it's extremely important.

And and that's the biggest thing.

If you're going to be involved in an advisory committee, can, you know, consistently be active, like you had said before, consensibly speak your voice.

But we do have those people who come in and they say, you know, they're very active for like maybe one or two and then they just kind of disappear.

And when they disappear, then all of a sudden, hey, I need somebody.

So then they're going to become active again because I really need somebody and I want your best guy.

Again, when we're talking about when I said this before, this is an investment into our industry and you need to be part, you know, these, these, these shops and these dealerships, they need to be part of this advisory committee.

And they need need to be there for the long term, kind of like John is, is there every single time to make sure that my voice is being heard and that I can turn around and I can help.

Now, for, for us, I said we have about 75 people who are part of our advisory committee.

We've got about, I'd say maybe 60% of them that are really active, you know, that are there consistently.

What's great to see with this advisory committee and, and I love to see the growth is that a good majority and if I have to pick a number, I'd say probably about 45 to almost 50% of the advisory committee members now who sit on our committee are our past graduates.

They have gotten into that role into their career where they were technicians and then they've went up through the ranks within the organizations.

And now they're coming back as the shop managers as the dealer principals and are sitting back on our advisory committee members.

And those are the ones who are really active because they've had the classes before they've had us before and they know the importance of being part of our college and the importance of being in this advisory committee.

That is such great advice talk about depth of relationship somebody that's experienced the program that's gone through the program becoming an advocate of the program as they step out into industry.

You have a great, great alumni network, some very talented people that are in some really, really high positions right now.

And having those voices in that, you know, if it is an advisory committee meeting or even if it's not, right?

Like, Tom, remember back to the days when we talk about SkillsUSA, it's like pulling teeth at times to get people to help us out with SkillsUSA.

Some of it was the same with advisory committees, right? And like trying to get people to show up.

And I think as the crunch has gotten harder, it's harder to find people.

We found more people with interest in schools.

And I just remember first starting off, especially with you guys, sometimes it was hard.

I think harder than it is now to get people to show up.

Whereas now maybe we've made some progress in the right direction.

Yeah, we definitely have. So I'm very, very happy with our advisory committee.

Like I said, we have to hold our meetings in our shop.

I mean, when we're turning in 35, 40 members that are coming in for an advisory committee meeting, you know, twice a year, we have to do that through the state.

I mean, that's a lot. That says a lot out of our 75-some members that we're a part of our advisory committee meeting.

That's one of the biggest ones that this college actually sees a year.

John, when you look back at maybe progress over a given year, once you're, you know, maybe doing your year-end review of how things went with your business,

do you have any ability to look back at maybe some of those conversations you've had with schools over the years, over the past year,

and kind of reflect on some of the things you did right, or maybe what you'd like to do more of?

You know, I can speak to that with the local high school.

The local high school closed their auto shop program 10 years ago.

And we, through communicating with the vice principal and the principal, got them to reactivate it and allowed us to host that class in our training center.

So we got the school to realize that CTE was important

and that we could provide the place, the equipment, and the instructor to make it happen.

So we would love to see them put it back in the school and we'd support that.

But we're also okay with designating the space and providing the, you know, the ability for those students to come and get an introduction to automotive.

How does that conversation start, John, with having them come to your shop?

Well, fortunately, we're within two blocks of the school.

So we told them that you need an auto shop program.

This is at the principal, vice principal level.

You need an auto shop program and we're here to advocate for you to have that.

Well, we don't have space.

We don't have funding to build all of what we need.

Okay.

How about if we host it and you pay the instructor?

Well, we can do that and it developed from there.

We'll pay the instructor piece is a big one, along with the facilities.

And I think also speaks to your viewpoint and not being so attached.

I think one of the things where again shops go very wrong is they are solely focused on getting that one student that one year out of a program when if they took a step back at the greater good and said, hey, how do I make sure this school is really, really strong so we don't risk losing that program.

They don't risk losing their funding for that program.

I think you, John, had the foresight to be able to look at that from a different angle and say, we can help out in a greater way for a school that might have those budgetary restrictions.

And for you and your team to step up to the plate to do something like that.

It's pretty unheard of.

That's it's pretty cool.

That was awesome there.

I have to say that I was that's awesome.

You do want to make a point if I can kind of jump on to John's conversation over there is, you know, when you start thinking about how do how is your involvement within schools and I like that.

John went to the principal and the vice principal and said, hey, how can we help out?

The other thing too, and this can be anybody in that, you know, in your organization is to get to the local school board meetings.

They're going to have these school board meetings.

They're the ones that are going to set the budgets.

They're the ones that are going to sit there and say, what programs say what programs know we have to as an industry be part of that.

Get yourself on a school board.

So you are an advocating for industry on these school boards and start saying, hey, wait a minute.

What do you mean you're going to get rid of the automotive program?

Right.

What is needed to keep the automotive program going?

Be part of the school boards.

This is it's just as important as being part of the advisory committee itself.

It's just as important because they need to listen to what the district or what the community needs.

You know, I kind of use this conversation here.

I come from a real small town here in Wisconsin right before we moved to my small town.

We spent millions and millions of dollars on a beautiful auditorium where students have an opportunity then to learn, you know, the arts of song and dance.

And we're very, very good in the music and the song and dance.

Don't get me wrong.

I like it.

But at the expense of what?

At the expense of losing our automotive program.

So I always kind of I've gone to some school boards and I've made my mention.

I says, we got a lot of kids that can sing and dance around a broken tractor, but can't fix it.

So when I take a look at what is important in our community, well, we're a farm community.

Yes, we're kind of a bedroom community between the two large cities here in Wisconsin, but we are a farm community.

So what we should be doing is advocating for those technical students to have these types of opportunities.

Of auto shop, wood shop, metal shop, welding, things of that nature.

So these students, when they actually get out of school, have some type of a career to fall back on when we start looking at how many students are going to take up music or dance or show choir as a profession.

You know, not that many are going to do that.

And then we're not.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm still trying to say that that's that's important, but not at the expense of removing what's really important in the community.

How do you when you approach that school board meeting?

Can you lean on educators to guide you on what to say in those conversations when you go up in front of a school board at times that can be an intimidating process in itself.

Trying to get an understanding and making sure that you're on the same page as the instructors before you go into that conversation.

Can you is it okay from an industry perspective to go to our local school and get guidance on what maybe our message should be?

If you got that deep relationship again, you know, that's the thing when you start talking about these deep relationships, you know, we got those deep relationships and we have these conversations and stuff like that.

And it's like, man, this would really be great.

That's where you kind of open up to each other.

And specifically those CTE instructors or the instructors in your community college, you know, hey, it would be really great if we can kind of do this.

It'd be really great if we hear from the community that, hey, we really need this program or we really really need this kind of piece of equipment or something of that nature to where now when we're working with budgets that we can start adding this stuff into these budgets.

You know, speaking of Bobcat, Bobcat rolled in about five, six years ago into a small town really close to where I am.

And they're working heavily right now with one of the local high schools.

And they've got several different pieces of equipment now, not Bobcat equipment, what I'm saying, but I mean tooling and stuff like that that they didn't have before because these people advocated heavily at their school boards for this.

And it really helped those particular CTE programs in the local high school.

So it does help like that.

The one thing I will add there, Tom, I think, and I'm not the greatest at this myself, but I think there's a huge opportunity in that being present at a school board meeting when it's not because the program is going to shut down.

I think a lot of times that's the switch to flip for industry to get involved is, oh, no, we've run out of money and we can't support this program anymore.

And then everybody comes screaming and hollering at the school board meeting about funding the program.

I think there is opportunity for those in industry that if you do care about that school, maybe show up and share some of the success stories.

Maybe show up in in times that aren't in dire need of saving a program.

Like if you can get involved with the school and bring something positive to the equation as well, I think school board members are pretty consistently getting beat up for money in a lot of different ways.

So being able to show up in times where it's not in dire need.

I think, and I don't even know if I've got a specific example of somebody doing that.

It just feels like maybe there's an opportunity there to stand up and talk in a time where it's not desperation.

You're right.

I think it's time not only to go into the school board and voice your concerns, but it's also a time when you go to these meetings to actually congratulate them on what they are doing because they want to hear both ways.

I don't want to hear all of the banter on getting beat up about how you're spending money this way, that way, or the other way.

But if they are doing something fantastic that you agree with, get into the school boards also and congratulate them on what they're doing because that goes a long way.

And yes, you're right.

Attend these meetings as much as possible to show the presence of that industry and you will see things turn around.

Again, a long-term investment.

This is a long-term investment.

I mean, I started this part of the conversation off.

John, I'll get to you in just a second.

I started this part of the conversation off with talking about how we look back at what we've actually done with the school.

We have a tracker within Wrenchway within school assist that allows you to do that.

We actually give awards for participation on both sides now.

So if you're a shop that's doing some great things with the school and you can record it on there, you'll get recognition for doing the things that you're doing.

And more importantly is that when you look back and you do your reflection over the year, you can look back with certainty and say,

we worked with the school X amount of times on different things and you could maybe see the depth of the things that you did with that school.

But I think similar to anything, what we've noticed by tracking activities, you can look back and see if you didn't do some things, right?

Because it is really, really easy to miss that one advisory committee meeting and then you're waiting for another six months and in between you don't do anything with the school.

And the days fly by, the years fly by, it just time goes so fast that unless you're recording your activities, that thing that you thought you did six months ago could have actually been six years ago, right, John?

Yeah, it happens.

Yeah, time flies. It's hard. And John, somebody like you who is operating a substantial business, it can be hard to set aside that time and it can be easy to maybe think you did more than you actually did.

Yeah, and that's where delegation comes in and then I want to throw one more piece in there. Most shops belong to some kind of professional association.

And it is in the venue in my opinion of the association to help with and participate in working with the schools.

So it's, you may have shops that are, you know, two men to six man shops that don't really have the resources to go and participate with the schools.

But when they talk to their association and say, hey, my schools are asking for support, can we help? And the association is going to have somebody that wishes to go and be that liaison.

Where some of the smaller shops may not have time or even the inclination to be that representative. But we still need to engage with the schools because that's part of the pipeline for the next generation.

It is. And I think as we're getting close to being done with this webinar already, it's flown by, but great, great information out of both of you.

I do have one last question. I'm going to start with you, Tom, on advice that you'd give someone just starting to build a relationship with the school.

I guess some advice. Everybody wants to kind of come in here and say, OK, what can I do to help you build your program or build your curriculum? What do you need?

You got to remember a lot of schools don't, you know, yes, they love that monetary value of whether it's a cash donation, you know, monetary value and equipment donation, tooling donation, things of that nature.

And don't get me wrong. That's all good. There's other things that we have to think outside the box too. And this is one thing that I like when you're starting new relationships is what else can we do to help when you're dealing with community colleges and stuff?

You brought this up. Everybody wants that great guy, you know, that number one guy. Well, why don't you help the community colleges or go in and help the high schools get the students in there?

If you go in there and help recruit for these people and you find an individual that you're recruiting and you kind of mentor like what John does, bring them on, mentor them into an internship, you already have your great guy before they even start school, before they even graduate.

So, you know, it's great to come in there and if I have one advice is, you know, go in there and build that long term relationship. That's the biggest thing is go in there and build that long term relationship.

And don't go in there and try to, you know, wow, and stuff like that and hit that home run right away. Go in there and ask both what can I do for you as well as what can you do for me?

John, same question for you from the school's perspective. Like what could a school do to better their relationships with industry?

So, I would say it's that communication. Go to the school, ask for a tour, show me your shop. I've heard great things about your shop, your school, and just show me around.

And as you go around, you'll spot things that you know you can help with, but instead of trying to be with a large ego going and say, I can help you with that, I can fix this problem or whatever, just listen to what they have to say and help them solve whatever issues they have.

And invite them to come back and visit your shop.

And that's really as simple as it is.

I think that is outstanding advice and it helps build on that relationship in general. Now, as we conclude with this, we do have a few questions. We'll only be able to get to, I think, probably two or three here.

But Todd Ainsworth asked, I think some of the biggest challenges I have with advisory committee meetings, advisory committees I serve on, excuse me, is getting other shops involved.

Our independent repair industry has a history of being a little too independent and sees everyone as competition as opposed to fellow industry members.

Right.

Is this what other people experience as well? John, I'll go to you on that.

It is. And like we said in our education foundation, it's the egos in check.

Invite them, call them up. You know the people on the block. Call them up and say, hey, the school's having a meeting. Let's talk about it in advance.

Go to lunch with your fellow. You think they're competitors? There's plenty of cars.

There's plenty.

There's plenty of cars. It's only in how you present yourself that you're either busier or not busier. It's all presentation.

So meet your neighbor. Invite them to go with you and show up at the advisory committee.

Always that good advice. Carson Latham says, our finance and HR folks love metrics. What are signs of a successful engagement program from a stakeholder sponsor standpoint?

And are there metrics along the way to help measure how the program is doing?

One, to start a partnership, expected benefits. Two, to sustain interest and keep the engagement going, especially with a long-term investment in mind and measurement difficult.

I'll add something there, Carson. I'm not sure if you're on our school assist program or not, but we have a really, really nice tool to kind of track those engagements and track the activity.

Not only that you did something with the school, but getting more specific on what you actually did with the school.

What I'd encourage you to do is sit down with those finance and HR folks and define what your goals are as a company.

And I would make them activity-based, right? Being able to maybe see if we're looking into 2026, what are we going to do with schools in 2026?

What schools are we going to be engaged with? Just really, really being able to get on the same page as your finance and HR folks, and not just those folks.

Like your entire team, the more aligned you are with your entire team, I think the better you're going to be.

Now, as far as the school side and the metrics to measure their success, I think that truly is being involved with them to really understand,

hey, we don't have enough enrollment this year. Okay, what can we do to help out with recruiting students, help you recruit students into that program?

Or, hey, we're going to be fighting budget cuts. Okay, what can we do to get involved right now?

Again, going back to Tom's point earlier about maybe that is going to a school board meeting.

Maybe that is doing something over and above for the school. I know the schools really, really appreciate when you do stuff like that,

but it takes that familiarity with the school. And I think to get that familiarity with the school, you've got to be engaged.

And really, if I look at it from a metric standpoint, the amount of engagement and how you're engaged is very, very important.

Now, Tom, I'm going to end with the last question to you. Nolan Duda says, what is most attractive in internships or full-time positions from the perspective of students?

Well, when I take a look at that, what is the attractiveness is that they're actually adding to their education. That's the biggest thing.

When I take a look at this as far as internships and part-time employees and things, you know, our program here does require an internship,

specifically a summer internship. And of course, we're working really heavily with that particular partner.

So they have to be a part of our program. Again, one of our advisory committee that we talked about.

And they actually work with us to help educate the student while the student is at the actual location.

So if we're working, you know, in class on breaks and suspension systems over there, while the student is at work, the student kind of focuses on that.

And what's great about not only the student, Aiden, and our education, but on the other flip side of that from coming from the employer is,

do I want to make a long-term investment in this individual while they are doing this internship?

Because that's huge, too. The expense it takes to bring on an employee and have that employee go through all of their, you know, the startup procedures and stuff.

Do I want to make that long-term investment in that individual? It's kind of like a, you know, a small little probation thing on that particular student.

So it is a two-fold thing.

Yeah.

All right. That brings us to the end of our session today. A huge, huge thank you to both of our guests, John and Tom.

You were amazing. Really, really fun to talk with you. We really appreciate you sharing your time and perspectives.

We covered a lot of ground today, how to start partnerships, what makes them effective, why consistency and trust matter, and how to communicate and showcase the impact of your efforts.

If there's one theme that I feel came through loud and clear today, it's that you don't need to start off with the home run.

You don't need to do those huge things, but start small, show up consistently, be a presence at the school,

and following through with what you say you're going to do goes a long way for both the instructors and the students.

I just want to say thank you to all of you that joined us today. Love seeing the comments and hope you'll join us again on another webinar down the road.

Thank you, everybody.

RENCH is managed and produced by the RENCHWAY team. RENCHWAY is an online community dedicated to promoting and improving automotive and diesel careers.

We help technicians find the best shops to work at, and we also help auto, diesel, and CTE instructors get more support from local industry.

You can learn more by visiting wrenchway.com.

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