The annual ASE Industry Education Alliance Instructor Training Conference was held at the Westin Hotel at Crown Center in Kansas City, MO, on July 27-31, 2015. The conference was very well attended by over 300 participants that included over 250 automotive instructors. The event was enhanced by many corporate sponsors who help fund the many excellent meals and breaks.
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Monday, July 27– A welcome reception was held at the host hotel from 6:30-8:30 PM.
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Tuesday, July 28– The conference started with breakfast and a general session. A large group sessions of general interest to most secondary and post-secondary instructors followed.
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Wednesday–Thursday, July 29-30– After breakfast each morning, the participants had a choice of nine technical sessions covering all aspects of automotive service and the latest technology. These sessions were either 90 or 120 minutes depending on the schedule allowing the trainer to tailor their presentations to the allocated time that best met their needs.
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Wednesday Evening- 5:30-9:00 PM was the instructor diner and recognition banquet held at the host hotel.
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Friday, July 31-The morning activity was a networking field trip to the Kansas City Automotive Museum, which was the last of the schedule activities for the conference.
What I learned:
From the presentation from ASE/NATEF, I learned
- There are 350,000 ASE certified technicians
- There are currently 135,465 students certified under the student certification program.
- There are 2,357 NATEF certified automotive programs with 35,000 students.
- The Automotive Training Manager Council (ATMC) was created in 1984.
In other presentations that I attended, I learned many details on the German ZF six and eight automatic transmissions as well as latest news and products from many vendors who were present and gave technical presentations.
What I presented:
Curt Ward from Joliet Junior College and I presented two 90-minute presentations. The first was a standing room only presentation from 1:00-2:30 on Wednesday afternoon and repeated on Thursday morning from 10:30 until 12 noon. We received many good questions and comments both during and after each presentation. Our presentation was titled “Diesel Diagnosis for the Gas Instructor”. This topic was in response to questions from automotive instructors at previous conferences who did not know what to teach or what was needed to teach light diesel engines. Light duty diesels are used in many European as well as Chevrolet, GMC, Ford and Ram pickup trucks and are being produced in large numbers. This presentation resulted in many good questions and much discussion on how the instructors could start teaching light diesel in their classes.
Summary:
The ASE Industry Education Alliance Instructor Training Conference offered very informative presentations, with great food and was held at super nice hotel in neat city. It does not get much better than that.
Editors' Note – This is a guest post by Jim Halderman, an esteemed automotive repair textbook author and contributor to AdamsAutoAdvice.com.