Toronto, Ontario — In the face of Canada’s recent automotive labour shortages, one OEM has launched what it calls an “innovative” scholarship program designed to attract the industry’s top trades students.
BMW Group Canada’s scholarship program, run in conjunction with Toronto, Ont.’s Centennial College and British Columbia’s Vancouver Community College, gives select students a chance to work with a local BMW Group certified collision repair centre, gaining exposure to 21st-century repair procedures and facilities.
To learn more about the program, Collision Repair spoke to Michel Matte, an executive at BMW Group Canada to take a closer look at the company’s scholarship program and how it could set a precedent to other OEMs in the future.
Collision Repair: Could you give our readers a brief introduction to who you are and your roles with BMW Canada?
Michel Matte: My name is Michel Matte and I am the national manager of aftersales, business development and marketing for BMW Group Canada. A very long title, I know, but basically I have a team that extends to about 20 people who are directly or indirectly responsible for aftersales marketing, parts pricing, accessory and lifestyle business development, the wholesale business which includes our certified collision program.
CRM: Could you describe BMW Group Canada’s scholarship plan over the next three years?
MM: First, I want to give credit to Gary Lin, our certified collision program specialist here at BMW Group Canada for coming up with the idea and developing the program. His experience as a teacher at the college level made the program a natural fit.
For us, this is a program that’s already been running for just over a year in Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia. We are planning to start something in Montreal, Quebec before the end of this year. The future of the program really relies on the industry and student demand for it as well as the engagement of our certified collision repair centres, because they jointly support the program financially and in terms of the spaces they give to apprentices. If it weren’t for the industry demand and engagement from the certified collision repair centres, the program would not be a sustainable one.
CRM: In a recent statement from BMW Group Canada, the company described the program as “innovative.” In your own words, what is innovative about BMW’s approach to collision repair scholarship programming?
MM: The first element is that, as far as we know and certainly in Canada, there is nothing quite like it in the market. None of the other Canadian OEs seem to be engaged at this level in trying to elevate the trade in this direct way. Based on our contact with BMW in Munich, Germany, we are not aware of any other programs going on globally. We’re not the first, but we’re among the first to go in this unusual direction.
We’re also really trying to attract the best possible students in order to give them exposure to 21st-century repair techniques and collision centres. This is not a program that is geared towards someone trying to get into the trade as people perceive it to be, but rather to get into the trade in the way we see it heading in the future.
We tie the program into our own brand training as well. We have a program called BMW Group Brand Academy that all employees and retail employees must participate in. We extended that into this scholarship program, so, in addition to their courses, students also partake in brand training from one of our brand ambassador trainers.
CRM: What effect do you feel these scholarships will have on the labour shortages we are currently seeing in the industry?
MM: I think we still need to be realistic about it. Our capacity right now for students across the country is a total of 10—five facilities in Vancouver, five in Toronto and hopefully, in the future, another five or so in Quebec. I think that’s a small dent in the overall industry, and most of those apprentices will be funnelled into BMW Group certified collision repair centres. I think it certainly helps our collision centres, and a lot of those collision centres do other work as well and are not exclusive to BMW and Mini. So I think there is also an indirect benefit for some of the other manufacturers out there as well.
For us, we hope the word of mouth about the program itself around the program, within the student community, the college community and the trade community will generate some renewed excitement about the trade in general.
CRM: While the small number of actual applicants may be just a drop in the bucket, do you feel as though these types of scholarship programs could begin setting a precedent?
MM: I do. Right now I think the automotive industry is feeling a bit of a pinch, so the financial resources an OE might want to put toward a program like this may be limited when you can’t necessarily say it’s revenue-generating. This is definitely a program that you need to have a certain amount of vision and faith to embark in.
As an industry, if we’re really going to be committed to repairing vehicles the way they were specified to be repaired by the original manufacturers, we have to do more than simply sit on the sidelines and hope that things will work out. Everyone knows the expression, “hope is in a plan,” and we think other OEs in Canada will see our example and the merits of it and perhaps work toward something similar.
