Good Technicians are made, not born… and Dwyer Technician Chris Waterbury is helping make them.
Gone are the days when “mechanic” meant “Goober under a shade tree”. For better and worse, today’s vehicles are mechanically complex, computer-controlled virtual spacecraft speeding along our roads. Today’s “mechanics” are more properly called “Technicians”; consummate professionals who must understand knowledge from mechanical and electrical engineering, chemistry, computers, materials science, and more, and then be able to distill and apply it “on the fly” to thousands of vehicle models from hundreds of manufacturers. Where do you even start to find people who can do all that? You don’t find them, you make them, but if you want to make the best you start with Tom Dwyer Automotive Services…
The National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) creates standardized assessments and test materials for career and technical programs in high school and college. Teachers combine their experience with that of working industry professionals in fields from Agriculture to Health to Computers to Trucking and more. These tests must be continually updated to fit technological advances, then aligned with national academic, business and industry standards.
An educational consultant was recently working with NOCTI to build a team of teachers and professionals to revise its Automotive Technology test, and fortunately he knew Chris Waterbury. Chris is one of our top Technicians, an ASE-Master-Certified Technician who’s been with us for almost 20 of his 30 years’ automotive experience. In addition to his coveted Master Technician title he also has an L1 Advanced Emissions certification and is one of the few Techs in the country to have earned the new L3 Hybrid Vehicle certification. In short, if you want a Technician’s Technician, you want Chris.
He was added to a list of about 80 candidates and selected for the final group of 7 who would do the evaluation… the only working auto professional on the panel.
“I was really impressed by the teachers I worked with”, Chris said. “They obviously cared deeply about the students they’d be affecting, and wanted to make sure they learned the most useful material. I felt like they were committed to making sure these kids had the strongest shot at a good career.”
The Automotive Test covers all aspects of automotive technology with both “paper” and “hands-on” components. The group broke the broad subject matter into smaller chunks like Tires or Emissions, and Chris found himself on the Lights and Accessories section. The team reviewed the existing test, eliminated out-of-date or non-sensical material, and set the content and questions for the new test.
What were some of the things they changed? “Well, a car’s battery used to be tested one way but it’s given way to different technology and no new Tech will ever need to know about the old one. We killed that question. We also added material on systems like TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems) and advanced driver-assist systems. These are just two of the many new features that are becoming standard, and we need to be sure every new Tech knows all about them.”
Asked what he thought of the new crop of potential Techs, Chris was optimistic. “I’m very excited. The ones I’ve talked to are bright and upbeat, and really seem to know their stuff.” More specifically, “the online fluency of younger people is a big help, because the answers to so many problems we face in the shop each day are discussed online in peer-to-peer databases. Our guys are constantly talking to other techs across the country, and that kind of collaborative work is critical for success for any new Tech”.
There’s a joke about doctors and mechanics… mechanics have to work on thousands of different models of car, but doctors have worked on the same model for thousands of years. That’s surely one difference, but there’s a real similarity in that education for Doctors and Technicians never ends. It’s a constant struggle to keep up with changing technology, and the institutions who train these pros have the same struggle. The schools that are conscious of the changing environment and are conscientious about keeping up with it are the ones who are turning out the quality we’ll need, both as an industry and consumers. We’re just proud to tell you that one of our Techs, Chris Waterbury, is helping to mold these impressionable new minds… we think they’re in good hands.
