By Mike Davey
Toronto, Ontario — February 19, 2016 — Ongoing training is crucial to delivering quality repairs, but there are still many operators who haven’t received this message. A recent event hosted by I-CAR and Centennial College in Toronto has helped to change that.
I-CAR Canada offered a free class on “Technology and Trends for 2016” to insurers and repairers in the Toronto area. A total of 112 stakeholders registered for the course, which took place in the auditorium at Centennial College’s Ashtonbee Road campus. They came to get the latest information on new materials, electronics and repair procedures.
The class was led by Saeed Ahmed, one of North America’s most prolific I-CAR instructors. Ahmed noted that many in the class had not participated in I-CAR training in some time.
“This course is a must for our industry,” he says. “The changes facing us now are coming fast and furious, and training is absolutely critical to stay in, and succeed, in business.”
I-CAR launched the Trends and Technologies series in 2010 and the class has been updated on a yearly basis since that time. ‘
“One of the biggest trends we’re seeing right now is more use of advanced high-strength steels,” says Ahmed. “They are being used to lower weight, but also to protect passengers and lower injuries and fatalities, as well as make the vehicle more crashworthy. We’re also seeing a lot of new safety features, such as cameras and sensors, lane departure warning and other crash mitigation technology.”
The need to reduce vehicle weight is ongoing, in large part to increase fuel efficiency. On the flip side, there is also an ongoing demand for more safety features.
“Fuel efficiency is foremost in the minds of the OEMs, but they’re also continuing to add weight because of safety features,” says Ahmed.
Ahmed says a typical I-CAR course draws about 10 to 30 participants. Special courses held at NACE often draw much higher numbers, but that’s a special case. That a course like this drew over 100 stakeholders speaks to a recognized need to stay on top of technological issues.
“It was a great success,” says Ahmed. “The participants were very much engaged throughout the class and I enjoyed doing it.”
Andrew Shepherd is the Executive Director of I-CAR Canada. He says there are plans to follow up the Toronto event in other cities.
“In some of the major metropolitan areas like Toronto and Vancouver, there are a lot of shops that are not taking I-CAR courses,” he says. “We don’t know what kind of training they are doing, but we suspect that when it comes to general technical updates, they’re not doing any training. The Technology and Trends 2016 course is perfect for showing why you need training.”
Shepherd says the Technology and Trends series is consistently one of I-CAR’s most popular courses.
“People want to know what our world will look like in the future. I think the strong attendance at this event shows an unidentified concern about the future,” says Shepherd. “Courses like this show the way forward.”
Keep an eye on collisionrepairmag.com for news about upcoming I-CAR events in your city. For more information on I-CAR, please visit i-car.ca.
