ARA program aims to give recyclers a wider world view

By Joe Rayment

There’s more than one kind of education. There’s going to classrooms, doing homework and studying. There’s on the-job training and apprenticeships. There are online courses you can take to add to your skill set.

There’s also a category that’s harder to teach, but just as important: life experience. With this in mind, the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) Education Foundation recently launched its educational exchange program.

The program—the brainchild of ARA Educational Foundation vice president Ross Nicastri—sends auto recycling employees far and wide to experience different facilities and different cultures.

One of the first Canadians to take part in the program was Stephanie Fugère. Stephanie, who works for her father Roger Fugère at Lecavalier, travelled to Mount Pearl, Newfoundland to spend a month working at Auto Parts Network.

“It was a really nice trip and I think I learned a lot,” Stephanie said. “I learned a lot in my life and a lot in business.”

Under the program, the originating facility—in this case Lecavalier—continues to pay the employee’s salary while the host facility provides lodging and commits to showing the employee a bit of the area’s culture.

For the month that Stephanie was in Newfoundland she stayed with Auto Parts Network owner Glenn Hickey.

“The family brought me to a lot of places,” Stephanie said. This included many of the cultural gems of southern Newfoundland, including the historic fishing village Quidi Vidi and Cape Spear, the easternmost location in North America.

“The view is really beautiful,” Stephanie said.

In the workplace, Stephanie fit in well. She found a lot of common ground between the two operations—they shared many of the procedures and Stephanie even had similar responsibilities at Auto Parts Network.

There was something about it though, that drove home what she likes in automotive recycling. While she was there, she made a career choice.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life before I went there,” she said. “But now I’m pretty sure I want to go into the business of my father.”

The educational exchange is open to all ARA members for employees over the age of 18.

“After having been involved in an exchange program myself I believe the most is gained when employees are exchanged for one with a similar job title to allow more employers to participate and not fi nd themselves short-handed during the program,” said ARA president Sandy Blalock. “I hope that members of our industry embrace this opportunity to educate and improve the systems within our industry.”