“We’re not giving colleges yet, but we make sure we’re covering the technology in our e-learning,” and dealers can give would-be technicians test drives, Rosenfeld said. But the automaker is already dangling the technology. Mercedes-Benz’s new EQS all-electric vehicle platform is still only just working its way into the luxury automaker’s U.S. Mercedes-Benz executives and dealers also understand that their best repair-technician candidates are going to want to work on the latest vehicles and tech systems - and in the auto industry now, that means all-electric and hybrid vehicles.
That gives them a real filter to a pipeline of talent.” We require dealers to offer students at least one internship or apprenticeship each semester. “When a school commits to creating a ‘Mercedes-Benz major,’” Rosenfeld said, “we donate a vehicle so they have the ability to give those students not only e-learning but also hands-on experience. America’s two-year schools are leading something of a renaissance in vocational learning as the cost - and effectiveness - of four-year college degrees come increasingly into question, and Mercedes-Benz is leveraging that revolution. And we ask our dealers to participate locally with career days, going to schools and making presentations to classes, donating some swag, maybe bringing students on a dealership tour each semester.”Ĭommunity colleges, which increasingly are leveraging direct relationships with companies of all sorts, are an important part of the new Mercedes-Benz alliance. We will give faculty the core e-learning courses. Schools are responsible for taking our curriculum and promoting it. “We have three-way connections, involving our dealers,” Rosenfeld explained. Mercedes-Benz created a new program aimed at high-school students and one aimed at two-year colleges and vocational schools. Partnership is a crucial component of the new programs.
Coming out of the pandemic, Rosenfeld - who has been with the company for 26 years and has headed the Academy since 2019 - and others knew they needed to step things up with “more opportunities to get into schools and communities and with parents,” she said. It enjoys a 98% hire rate with dealers.īut Mercedes-Benz leadership saw that this program wasn’t enough, and then Covid interrupted it. The company has conducted an intensive, 17-week training program for technicians for several years, which has recruited many high-school students, ex-military maintenance technicians and others. But it’s not like its technician shortage sneaked up on Mercedes-Benz and its dealers.
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