One company has developed a program aimed at tackling the technician shortage, with an expedited training program promising to create work-ready technicians.

Pro-Mech Learning Systems, which offers commercial vehicle repair training online and in the classroom, has launched TechSpedite; an accelerated four-week intensive training program designed to educate and place capable technicians faster and less expensively than traditional schools.

The course is taught in a real working shop over the course of a full working day to mirror their future environment, according to the company. Hands-on training is conducted daily on live equipment, and success is measured in terms of what the students actually learn rather than the amount of time they spend. Students progress by demonstrating the competency, knowledge, and skills required to complete each task.

TechSpedite’s objective is to produce entry-level technicians that can immediately contribute by performing preventive maintenance inspections, diagnose and repair the most common service issues, and possess the basic soft skills required to be a productive tech. Each graduate is drug tested. The employer receives a detailed analysis of the tech’s performance in the class, with a report from Pro-Mech outlining the strengths and weaknesses of each graduate and suggestions for on-boarding the tech into their workforce.

“We are finding a desire from students who want to minimize the cost and time commitment required with a traditional vocational college; and from employers eager to hire technicians with the basic skills to fill their demands,” said Chuck Barresi, CEO of Pro-Mech Learning Systems.

The TechSpedite four-week intensive training program teaches students with very limited skills or brand new entrants into the heavy-duty maintenance field the core skills they need to contribute to maintenance operations on the first day of their employment. Key areas of focus center around shop safety, power unit and trailer preventive maintenance inspections, foundation brake and wheel-end service, basic trailer repair and torching, suspension and alignment, fundamental electrical diagnostics, and follow-up service. The program allocates a significant amount of time to hands-on, shop based lab work to ensure the concepts students are being taught in the classroom can be executed on the shop floor.

For more information contact Pro-Mech Learning Systems at: 800-735-2381 ext. 1, or email  training@pro-mech.us.