Collision Industry Conference – Talent Pool & Education Committee

New Technician Basic Skills Development

Polyvance, in cooperation with other industry leaders in the Collision Industry Conference’s Talent Pool & Education Committee, is hosting a source of information that will be beneficial to new technicians entering the collision repair industry and their employers.

In industry surveys over the past 25 years, the following five skill sets have been consistently identified as those that shops would like incoming, entry-level technicians to have. New technicians possessing skills in these five areas will be able to make a positive contribution to the shop immediately.

• Plastic Repair
• Prep for Paint
• Remove and Replace Bolted-On Parts
• Repair of Small Dents in Metal Panels
• Detailing

Below are links to tables showing the information we have collected to date. This is a work in progress, and we are actively requesting input from others in the industry to make it more complete and useful, especially in filling out the resources for training. If you would like to contribute or suggest a change, please email Kurt Lammon at kurt@polyvance.com. The information below has been mainly contributed by Dave Brinkley and Kurt Lammon (in the plastic repair section). We seek to provide access to reputable resources from anywhere in the industry, not focusing on any specific company.