Is training important? If you think it is, how can it benefit your business? Researchers like Shelley Frost, who has written a comprehensive series of articles about training, discovered that companies have found training to be beneficial in many ways. Training expands an employee’s knowledge base, it strengthens skills a person may already have, it makes employees aware of safety issues s/he may not know about. Training also increases employees’ confidence in their skills and their ability to perform a task correctly the first time, reducing the chance they may have to rely on help from their supervisors or other workers. Training and education for technicians and skilled employees often helps them home in on career objectives by providing them with a solid foundation in launching and then remaining on their chosen career path.

Benefits for Owners and Managers

Managers and owners see benefits when they train their employees. With training, a skilled person performs better and more effectively, which translates into a more efficient workplace which further translates into higher profits. Trained individuals are also more likely to remain on the job, which means less employee turnover in the shop so managers and owners aren’t continually on the lookout for replacement workers.

The wrong type of training and inappropriate frequency of training can be negative. Obviously, owners and managers want to provide the specific training their employees need; one size does not fit all, except perhaps in safety or general-practice training. Common sense indicates it’s best to provide classes and education that pertain directly to an employee’s job and career path.

If owners and managers provide too many classes in too short a time, it can be difficult for their employees to absorb the new and important information the class provides. Overtraining can also increase stress on employees with the result that performance and production quality decrease. Another potential hazard is too much theory and not enough hands-on. Brain knowledge is certainly helpful, but without the “grounding” effect of some hands-on, practical application of that knowledge, training can be a waste of time, money and effort.

Body Shop Training

Training in body shop methods can be a big help. In the classroom, technicians learn from the experts while improving the mental, thinking approach to everyday as well as unusual repairs. The techs then take these ideas back to the shop and try them out for themselves. Retaining the notes they took and the literature that was part of the classroom instruction, technicians can refer back to them when they get stuck or need a refresher.

Combining hands-on experience with classroom education give employees the best of both worlds.

With hands-on training, techs not only learn from the experts by watching them do their magic, but they get to try out techniques and approaches themselves with the mentoring guidance of professionals and those with years of know-how to share.

Training often gives technicians exposure to new methods and techniques and allows opportunities to review familiar ones.  It allows technicians to experience for ourselves the “nuts and bolts” of the fascinating, ever-changing world of body-shop repair. But training also gives techs an opportunity to meet and hang out with other technicians, people of “like mind” with whom they can share their daily trials and concerns, and who knows, maybe even make some new friends along the way. Training sessions also allow technicians to have contact with those who have been in the field perhaps years longer than they have so they can absorb some of their wisdom and in effect become like them as body-shop experts and teachers.

The problem is most body-repair classes have been developed by insurers. They teach technicians how to do more work below cost, but this does not provide many technicians directions to where they want to go. Sure, that type of training helps insurers but what about essential new techniques, methods, and approaches? Technicians need to know and apply these in order to not only keep up with the latest but to be at the forefront of the newest techniques and methods with regards to the ever-evolving field of automotive manufacturing. Using them daily in the shop saves techs time and energy, and saves the shop time, energy, and money while helping increase profits. Body shop training that provides all of this is a big challenge. KECO GPR (glue pull repair) classes and hands-on training have developed expert-led, certified classes and hands-on training to meet this challenge.

KECO Training

GPR is a transformative approach to auto and truck body repair, leaving behind the traditional methods of drilling and welding that are invasive and time-consuming. GPR unique tabs-and-glue method, in addition to requiring less time and effort to pull the dent, also leaves most of the paint and exterior coating on the panel, which means far less sculpting, priming, and painting. GPR successfully addresses the aluminum versus steel dilemma that shops face today and also the problems that electronics, sensors, and insulation on and behind panels can create. It is a method that guarantees that technicians will spend less time on repairs, expend less effort, and achieve fantastic results. You can almost see higher profits rolling in the door.

KECO offers three types of training in GPR methods and techniques.

• Online at pulltopaint.com
• Regional events at a host site
• On-location training in the familiar environs of the technician’s or owner’s shop

Online Training

Online training is free and a great resource to learn GPR quickly and to become familiar with the tools involved in making repairs with the glue-pull method. Our online training may serve as the primary training, or techs can use it for continuing troubleshooting and tweaking after an initial classroom/hands-on session. The current online videos feature KECO’s own Jonathan Vandenfontyne who walks viewers through the “Six C’s of Glue Repair,” which is a comprehensive overview of GPR that lays out the basics any technician needs to know. This includes ascertaining the repair the vehicle needs, the type of tab and glue required to fix the dent, pulling tools, and other essentials of GPR. Click www.pulltopaint.com to begin learning about GPR now. 

Regional Training

Regional events are geared toward individual techs or for small shops that want in-depth GPR training but don't have enough guys on staff to justify the cost of on-location training. KECO hosts these events whenever there is enough interest generated in any one area. For example, KECO sponsored a regional training in Oklahoma City in early 2019 and one in Spring of 2019 in Pittsburgh. Regional training classes are open to anyone. Local techs typically fill up the class but trainees are more than welcome to fly or drive to the event. These classes typically cost $800 per tech and group rates are available for two or more technicians who attend from the same shop.

On-Location Training

On-location training is for medium to large shops that would like to train three+ technicians. This is dedicated, hands-on training in the comfort of the tech’s own shop. KECO instructors and students often do real repairs on customer vehicles so downtime is minimized and techs can see first-hand how they can utilize GPR approaches, tools, and methods in the shop. This is a more cost-effective option for shop owners compared to sending three or more techs to a regional event.

Certifications and training provide a number of advantages to help technicians, shop managers, and owners save time and effort in the shop, gain new customers, and increase profits while gaining a competitive edge on their competition. These include:

• ensuring shops are running at optimal efficiencies
• helping techs over any learning curves while implementing new tools into the shop
• increasing the likelihood of success as new tools and techniques become standard in the body shop.

So take your body-shop skills to the next level with our classes. They provide knowledge and know-how taught by master technicians with decades of experience. With our regional and on-site training, technicians acquire in-depth explanations combined with classroom learning and hands-on practice so they can master processes and approaches. KECO students learn about how to utilize GRP tools in the most impactful ways and methods to improve results so shops can deliver unrivaled service to customers and increase profitability, too.

To sign up for training, click here now. KECO welcomes all inquiries.