- Plan Your Education
- Explore Education Options
- Prepare for College
- Pay for College
- Apply to College
- How to Choose a Major
- Education Search Tools
Employer Quotes
The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Transportation
They are talking about this topic: Occupation-Specific Skills
The quotes below are about this issue:
Basic mechanical skills and aptitude. Mechanical skills and aptitude are essential in candidates, and yet they are often missing as schools move toward specialization. Broad mechanical training is essential.
| "It's hard for us to find qualified people, knowledgeable people that are willing to do this job. So it's a struggle every time we have somebody leave or retire to find somebody...even somebody with mechanics training, has the knowledge to come into the parts industry too, but there's a little gap there with experience in the younger people." | Northwest |
| "Granted, you're still going to still be in digging in the engine and doing stuff like that, but it's not like it used to be." | Northwest |
| "Back to basics...what do you need... You need spark, you need fuel, you need compression...back to the basics. This is what you need to make it run if you're working on an automotive vehicle. If it's electrical, you need Ohm's Law. You need to know how it works. But at the end of the day, if the teacher's there he should be showing you. `Here's what I found. This is how we got to the shortcut to get it fixed.' And it should be second nature to the new technicians that come on." | Northwest |
| "But it sounds like it's a combination of kind of the IT stuff...having some affinity or ability in IT...but also it's a nice combination of hands-on mechanical stuff, and automation, and IT, and use of computers." | Northwest |
| "The technician can't just be a brainy person. They've got to work with their hands, too. That's where the shortage is." | Northwest |
| "IT ability, okay. However, if you're going to be an auto tech, it's still hard work, it's still dirty work, okay? Who gets a dirty day in IT?" | Northwest |
| "There was the comment about kind of the rudimentary skills or the basic technician or mechanic type skills. And then you add the IT skills on for creating that well-rounded technician." | Northwest |