Staying Up with Today’s Changes

I am sitting at an airport waiting to board a plane on my way to Galesburg, IL. There I will attend a class about auto estimating. I believe this will help hone my skills in estimating and the trends in the collision repair industry.

It is important that instructors attend training to stay updated with the changes. If not, we may teach obsolete material, which may not be needed in the industry any longer. Just because it worked well ten years ago, does not mean it will work well for tomorrow.

Butler encourages their instructors to get the training they need to stay in tune with industry. Our program is accredited through NATEF, which requires all instructors to attain twenty hours of related technical training per year. However, we attain much more than that each year at Butler. We also have the opportunity to attend or participate in classes and conferences to help improve our teaching methods. This is one of the things that makes Butler a great pace to work. Not all schools offer these types of opportunities.

The class that I’m heading to today is called the “Nuts and Bolts of Estimating.” It is a class offered by Masters Educational Services. I have never attended one of their classes, so this will be a new experience for me. In March I will be attending I-CAR classes at Vision in Kansas. There we will learn more about water borne paints. You will be hearing much more about water borne from BCRN very soon, as Butler’s collision repair program is taking the steps necessary to “Go Green” as we speak. We have a meeting set up with the PPG representative next Wednesday to further discuss Butler going water borne.

Welp, time to board. Check back to stay updated with the BCRN program.