News Photo by Jordan Spence Alpena Community College auto body repair program instructor Chris Lubiato shows a car the program currently has in the shop. The students in the program work on cars of local residents to gain their needed skill sets.

ALPENA — The Alpena Community College auto body program will partner with a company to help prepare technicians this fall semester.

ACC will team up with Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair, instructor Chris Lubiato said.

“That’s what the I-CAR training does is the updating training. It’s for trained technicians to stay in touch with new technology,” he said.

The I-CAR curriculum will bring already licensed technicians in at night to further their education.

“They’re expecting to draw people from an hour away from places like Gaylord. Right now these people have to drive to places like Detroit (to update their skills),” Lubiato said.

This kind of training is imperative because the designs of cars always change and textbooks don’t keep up with it, he said.

During the day is when class will take place, he said. There is a maximum of 18 students allotted for the ACC program. The program is two semesters and runs from Monday through Thursday for 30 hours each week.

Lubiato said the great part about the program is it’s the only one at ACC where prerequisites such as math and English aren’t required.

“It’s almost like having a job for two semesters. Once the course is finished students take two state tests and they can legally work in state of Michigan,” he said.

The necessary tests include the State of Michigan Unibody Certification and the Automotive Service Excellence.

During the course they focus on skills related to collision repairs.

“We see a lot of deer hits, but we’re preparing for collision-related repairs. Historically in the past we focused on rust and restoration, which was a big part of the program. Now we work on fixing relatively new cars,” he said.

The program accepts cars from the community to work on. Lubiato said the customer only pays for parts and materials.

Lubiato has been the instructor from the program for five years. He is a graduate of Mott Community College’s auto body program and has worked for dealerships throughout the years. He also moved into management of a collision shop and also was the estimator.

He hopes to attract more students to the program because there is a dire need for technicians in the field he said.

“I don’t know if kids aren’t being encouraged or what. Historically these programs were full. Last week I had employers call in from Saginaw and Detroit. There’s jobs. They’re crying in the big cities — but kids don’t have to leave Alpena either,” he said.

Once they have graduated from the program he said technicians can go anywhere for a job.

“They can work in a shop, or own a shop, work for insurance companies. There’s so many avenues in the automotive aftermarket,” he said.

Anyone interested in the program should contact Lubiato at 358-7389 or lubiatoc@alpenaacc.edu. Central registration for the fall semester is Aug. 22-24. He said anyone who is interested should contact him in case they need advisement or follow-up. Classes begin Aug. 28 and end May 4.

Jordan Spence can be reached via email at jspence@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.