A National Strategy for Essential Skills Development for the Canadian Automotive Repair and Service Industry

The Canadian Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) Council has embarked upon a landmark project to address one of the most critical human resource issues facing the automotive repair and service industry today — essential workplace skills.

Through its newest project initiative, “A National Strategy for Essential Skills Development for the Canadian Automotive Repair and Service Industry”, CARS intends to assist industry to develop an integrated approach to identifying and addressing essential skills gaps as part of a new curriculum dedicated to continuous learning in the workplace.

What are essential skills?

Essential skills are basic competencies such as literacy, numeracy and the technological know-how that allows a technician to function efficiently and effectively in the workplace. And today, those essential skills also include the ability to continue to learn and acquire new skills in a rapidly changing work environment.

Addressing essential skills has long been an important part of the CARS strategic plan. Over the years CARS has undertaken a number of industry studies that have revealed that one of the critical and pressing issues facing the industry today was the need for enhanced basic skills competencies in the workplace — and the corresponding need for training to develop these competencies.

To achieve its objectives, CARS intends to undertake a number of precedent- making activities. Specifically, CARS will assess the current essential skills levels of the existing industry workforce; focus on the specific needs of key industry occupations; assess existing training to determine the level of essential skills in the present curriculum and to identify essential skill gaps; and, develop a training program curriculum to ensure employees essential skills levels meet and remain concurrent with today’s needs and future changes in technology.

The CARS project will be conducted over a two-year period ending in December, 2006. The project will be directed by an Advisory Committee of industry stakeholders and will be supported through the active participation of industry educators, employers and employees from across Canada.

For more information on the CARS National Strategy for Essential Skills Development, please contact Ed Nasello, (905) 709-1010.