Ensuring that the next generation of collision repair professionals is receiving the proper training in up-to-date facilities with modern equipment and tools is vital to the industry’s future success. Recognizing this, Liberty Mutual recently donated $25,000 to the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF), and those funds were distributed between four Massachusetts technical schools to support their collision repair educational programs.
Bay Path used the funds from Liberty Mutual to update old equipment and purchase items the program desperately needed, including a drain pan, hood prop, part carts, storage cabinets, a wheel caster system, several drill motors, a twist drill set, and a scan tool with OBDII capabilities. Instructor Ray Beck says, “This donation has had a positive impact on how we store car parts, and with the parts stored in a better way, it opens up more space to work in.”
Enabling schools to educate higher quality technicians entering the industry is vital to Liberty Mutual.
Kohl said, “We want to get our policyholders back in their vehicles as quickly as possible, but there’s not enough techs to fix all the cars. When the industry has an adequate pool of highly trained techs with the best tools, vehicles get repaired properly and returned to our policyholder quicker; by working together as an industry to make this happen, we all win.”
Industry members interested in joining the Collision Repair Education Foundation’s supporters, and assisting high school and post-secondary collision school programs and students should contact Director of Development Brandon Eckenrode at (312) 231-0258 or [email protected].