2007 AYES Training Conference

The 2007 AYES Training Conference is upon us. Tomorrow's Technician editor, Ed Sunkin, and I will be headed north this afternoon to join the rest of the Conference attendees at the beautiful Dearborn Hyatt Regency. The Conference began yesterday with a computer lab from 5 p.m. to 10 pm, as well as an Instructor Troubleshooting Competition from 7 pm to 9 pm. AYES provides a full week of opportunity for instructors to update their education, as well as network with each other and other automotive industry personnel. Today, from 8 a.m. to 5.15 p.m., they have two separate training sessions. One is Automotive Technology Technical Training and will include instruction on Brakes, Engine Performance, Electrical/Electronics, and Steering/Suspension. At the same time, there will be a full day of Collision Repair and Refinish training, led by PPG, DuPont, Akzo Nobel, Sherwin Williams, and BASF. AYES is serious about educating the educator!

This evening we'll attend the Manufacturer Welcome Dinner, sponsored by General Motors Corporation, followed by a few hours of hospitality. Last year, the dinner featured several interesting speakers from the major supporters of AYES. The hospitality provided us with a great opportunity to mingle with the instructors and school administrators. Generally, discussion centered around the kind of information you want us to provide with Tomorrow's Technician. We received a lot of great feedback and Ed and I are looking forward to another productive evening in Dearborn tonight.

Tomorrow and Thursday the training will continue. Wednesday's focus will be on AYES Model Training, and Thursday features Enrichment Training. I admire the AYES model because (from what I have seen) it provides a strong platform upon which each school can build a robust automotive program, and ultimately bring well-trained repair technicians into the automotive repair world. It seems as though they provide a lot of materials and support for both the instructor and school administrators.