THE CHALLENGE ISN’T JUST FINDING TECHNICIANS — IT’S CREATING PATHWAYS THAT KEEP THEM
“Collision repair has changed dramatically. The question is whether the industry’s approach to attracting and supporting people has changed with it.”
Spend any time in collision repair right now and the conversation almost always circles back to the same place: there aren’t enough technicians coming in to meet the demand going out.
It’s a familiar challenge. Shops are feeling it, schools are working to respond to it. The industry has been talking for years about attraction, training and retention. Those conversations matter, but they also tend to circle the same points without shifting what happens on the ground.
The work itself is changing quickly. Vehicles are becoming more complex, repair procedures more detailed and ADAS systems, OEM requirements and new materials have reshaped what it means to work in collision repair. The job is not what it was even a decade ago. The young people coming into the workforce are changing too.
Over the past year of writing about collision repair, I’ve found myself coming back to one question. If the industry is evolving this quickly, why do so many of the ways we introduce it, talk about it and support people still feel like they’re catching up?
Attraction, training and retention don’t start in one place and end in another. They run through classrooms and educators, yes, but also through shops themselves — in how apprentices are brought into the work, how mentorship actually shows up day to day and how much space is given for people to learn without being rushed past that stage.
They also extend beyond the shop floor in ways that matter more than they’re sometimes given credit for. In how businesses show up in their communities. In whether shops are active and visible online in a way that reflects what the trade actually looks like today. In hiring posts and social media content that either help young people see themselves in this industry or miss them entirely. All of that shapes industry perception long before someone ever walks into a shop. Somewhere in that space between interest and long-term retention, people are still getting lost. The challenge, more than anything, is making sure that same mindset carries into how the industry presents itself outwardly, not just how it operates internally.
As the new editor of BodyWorx Professional, I would like this magazine to help bridge the gap between the industry as it is and the way it’s being seen by the next generation.
