Since announcing in August significant enhancements planned for its core education and recognition programming, I-CAR® has continued to refine programming elements in order to provide customers with the best possible solutions and user experience. Because I-CAR is making changes to enhance its entire core product and service offering, it is imperative that all refinements work together in a logical and synchronized manner.
- Gold Class role requirements are scaled to shop size. This requires 50 percent of every shop’s Estimators, Refinishers and Non-Structural Technicians and 100 percent of its Structural Technicians to be trained to Gold Class requirements. One person can no longer hold all four roles; one person can hold up to two roles under the new requirements.
- Up to six role-relevant Vehicle & Technology Specific Training™ courses per technician are required annually for all non-role representatives.
- In-Shop Knowledge Assessments™ are optional in 2019.
- Increased frequency of Welding Training & Certification™ skill reverification, moving from five years to three years.
- Shop-level theory courses for Electrical/Diagnostics and Mechanical courses are required.
- A training subscription, scaled to the total number of technicians at the shop, includes all live, virtual and online courses for any shop employee. Available to all Gold Class shops, this subscription helps protect them from turnover costs while building bench strength by providing training for all technicians.
- Two Hands-On Skills Development™ courses, Squeeze-Type Resistance Spot Welding and MIG Brazing, will be required in 2020 for grandfathered shops, and in 2019 for new shops.
Transition Plan for Gold Class Shops
- Existing Gold Class shops will continue to train to current Gold Class rules through their 2019 renewal. At a shop’s first renewal date following the new program launch, the shop will begin transitioning to the new Gold Class requirements for their 2020 renewal.
- Shops that achieve or maintain Gold Class will be granted two renewal periods to achieve 50/100 percent scaling of role representative technicians to ProLevel 2.
Example: If a Gold Class shop is trained to the current ProLevel 1® rules by December 31, 2018, that shop will have through its renewal date in 2020 to train to the new ProLevel 1 requirements, 2021 for ProLevel 2 and 2022 for ProLevel 3®.
In addition, Platinum recognition will be achieved after a technician has trained through the new requirements to ProLevel 3. All ProLevel 1 courses will be conducted online.
For updated information, visit the I-CARTrainToGain.com website regularly, and follow I-CAR on social media for real-time updates.