ACDelco Boosts Training Offerings, Adding More Classes, Countries and Languages; Wider Access

GRAND BLANC, MICH. — ACDelco recognizes the importance of training technicians and shop owners so they can keep up-to-date with the rapid changes in the automotive aftermarket. This becomes even more crucial as ACDelco, along with the rest of the industry, expands even further globally.

To continue to meet – or exceed – these technicians’ and shop owners’ needs, ACDelco has enhanced its industry-leading training offerings in 2007, adding more classes, countries and languages, and offering access to a wider audience.

Additional Classes
ACDelco’s training opportunities have grown during 2007, including 45 new offerings added and five updated for a total of 187 classes, courses or seminars now available. From January through September, service center personnel completed more than 18,000 Technical and Business Management training courses through the ACDelco Learning Management System, or LMS, the catalyst for both Web-based and instructor-led training classes and seminars.

“We will always be adding new courses so shop owners and technicians can be on the cutting edge,” said Dan Carter, manager of ACDelco’s Global Aftermarket Service Development. “As new technologies emerge, we’re adding courses to cover them. We’re also leveraging our language resources around the world for translations, and each of the countries or regions will have an LMS tailored specifically for their needs.”

ACDelco added seven new Web-based training courses and updated another in 2007, bringing the total to 61 Web-based LMS offerings: 34 technical training courses and 27 business management classes. In addition, ACDelco added three new instructor-led training courses in 2007, for a total of 12 instructor-led courses now available.

ACDelco has also expanded its Tech Assists, the 10- to 20-minute technical training sessions technicians can take online. With three updated and 31 new sessions this year, ACDelco now offers 84 Tech Assists.

For Warehouse Distributors, two new classes also are available: “WD Selling Skills” and “WD Telephone Skills.” For shop owners, two new business management seminars now available are “Making the Connection: Marketing to Women” and “Marketing 101: Building a Plan.” The ACDelco LMS now offers 12 business management seminars.

The Marketing 101 seminar instructs shop owners how to build a business plan and helps them put together a marketing plan for their shop. The Marketing to Women seminar addresses dealing with women consumers, who now comprise the majority of a shop’s customers. According to Jacki Anderson, manager of ACDelco Training Operations, it is fast becoming one of the most popular LMS seminars.

“This particular seminar has gone over really well,” said Anderson. “We talk about what’s important to a woman customer, versus what’s important to a man. ‘Are the restrooms clean?’ ‘Is the shop child-friendly?’ ‘Is there hot coffee available in the waiting room?’ Just a lot of things shop owners might not really have thought of before, and now they really need to address to attract and retain this very important consumer segment.”

New technical training seminars include an updated one on fuel systems and new seminars on “All Makes Evaporative Systems” and “Programming for the Aftermarket,” which addresses one of the hottest topics in the automotive aftermarket.

“There can be over 20 programmable computers on one vehicle,” Carter said. “What this seminar does is show how to go to the GM or Ford or Toyota Web sites and pull programming information from their sites, as well as update the various computers on a car.

“This is all new information pertaining to late-model vehicles,” Carter added. “ACDelco is a little ahead of the game with this, but we want technicians to be informed about the types of diagnostic issues they might see coming into their shops in the next few years.”

Additional Countries and Languages
ACDelco’s LMS has expanded its language offerings in 2007 to include four others: Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish. And, the ACDelco LMS will soon be operating in six different countries or regions in addition to the U.S.: Canada, Italy, Mexico, the Middle East, the Netherlands and South Africa.

Wider Access to Training
For the first time, ACDelco is offering its courses for a fee to Independent Service Centers (ISCs). ISCs that participate in the ACDelco Total Service Support (TSS) program and ACDelco Key Fleet members will still receive all ACDelco training at no additional charge. Now, non-members also can take two sample Web-based training classes at no charge, then purchase additional classes one by one, ranging from $20 for Tech Assists up to $175 for instructor-led technical training classes. Click here for additional information.

Carter explained, “We want people to try some of our training classes, and once they have experienced them and become aware of all that is available, we feel they’ll want to join one of our programs and gain access to all the ACDelco training classes at no additional charge.”