Are we building agile graduate capabilities to meet automotive service industry trends?

Abstract

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can we secure the future professional competency of automotive technicians employed in the automotive service industry?

ABSTRACT: The inexorable use of electronic technology and rising user expectations of motorised transport are quickly moving the service industry towards a rapidly changing environment. To maintain the ability to deal with new and emerging technologies, industry leaders will need to rethink how they will address their staffing strategies. In this research, we found that the New Zealand automotive service industry is markedly different from what it was twenty years ago as technology in vehicles have been increased due to environmental legislation and customer demands. The service industry is going through a technological revolution as new more environmentally friendly vehicles are introduced into the fleet. Further technological complications are added as vehicle safety is improved through automation of vehicles and soon to become common, fully autonomous vehicles. Service technician training programmes must be modified to ensure that the industry is capable of dealing with high technology vehicles when they come up for service or repair.