The U.S. market for electric vehicles has been bumpy of late, with cooling demand and partisan headwinds. Yet EV sales still grew rapidly last year in this country, and the industry is expected to drive substantial job growth across manufacturing and battery production, as well as for automotive technicians.
Yet the number of certified automotive technicians is headed in the wrong direction, with just 173K technicians holding a certification from the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, down 100K over the last decade.
Training for EV and advanced driver assistance systems is considered optional under the traditional certification system. And no licenses or specific training are required for most technicians who work in this segment of the industry. The institute offers a computer-based certification for hybrid and EV specialists, but less than 4K technicians hold it.
“There is a massive gap in education and training for the incumbent workforce as well as those in the traditional secondary and postsecondary pipeline,” says David Macholz, the founder and CEO of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Education and Credentialing Coalition. “The competency of the workforce is not nearly where it needs to be.”
AVTECC is a startup that aims to expand and standardize training for technicians who work on EVs and advanced vehicle technologies, with a focus on preparing educators to teach these subjects. The nonprofit is piloting a skills-based certification program and seeking to accredit training providers across the U.S. and abroad.
“Accreditation will provide the schools a curricular framework and a scalable certification model that can be delivered during a course or program of study,” Macholz says.
The group has begun with certifications in the advanced technology space, but plans to create more than 20 microcredentials spanning broad technological areas and skill levels. Those certifications and credentials will be stackable and transferable across the automotive industry.
“We plan to map out how our microcredentials connect and relate to the existing training frameworks within the industry,” says Macholz, “which will make granting credit for prior learning and articulation agreements much easier.”
The certification program is hands-on, with a skills-based approach that assesses what a student or technician can do on a pass-fail basis.
“There is no margin for error when working on high-voltage systems,” says Macholz, who previously was assistant dean for transportation programs at New York’s Suffolk County Community College.
The Trump administration has paused or cut federal funding that has affected workforce development for automotive technicians. Many workforce grants are threatened, including those from the Federal Transit Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation. Macholz has written that the impact of those cuts could be massive.
The Kicker: “Who pays to train the transit technicians that now have fleets of electrified buses?” he says. “The major cities will likely have funding for this. However, the rural communities likely won’t.”