On Monday, December 16, Automotive News Canada published an article, “Underrepresentation of women contributes to dealerships’ tech shortage.” As outlined in the article, female service advisers and technicians are few and far between at dealerships:
About half the customers who take their vehicles to franchised dealerships for service are women, but their odds of being greeted by a female service adviser are only one in five. The chances that a female technician will work on their car or truck are far slimmer — a little better than one in 100.
To provide insight into how dealers can combat the technician shortage, Automotive News Canada spoke with Hireology co-founder and CEO, Adam Robinson. See below for an excerpt from the conversation.
Hireology’s Robinson says the difficulty of recruiting female technicians is more of a societal issue than an industry one. For decades, he says, high school students — especially women — have been steered toward college instead of vocational jobs.
“Vocational roles are some of the best career opportunities for people who opt not to go to college,” Robinson says. “It’s a problem that more girls and young women aren’t as interested in these roles.
“That impacts the auto industry in a huge way,” he says. “I hesitate to say that’s an issue that dealers themselves can address. We as an industry can plant a flag and say, ‘Hey, look, this is a real opportunity for people who have a vocational aptitude or interest in developing one. You should check us out.’
Read the full article on Automotive News Canada.
