Nearly 200 future mechanics take part in skills competition at San Juan College

Dozens of future mechanics from across the region gathered at San Juan College on Friday, Nov. 17 to take part in the annual Skills USA regional competition, an annual gathering of students enrolled in auto and diesel repair programs in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah.

The half-day competition featured high school and college students rotating through a variety of stations, where they had only eight minutes to examine a vehicle and make a diagnosis about how to get it operating again. On the diesel side, students were challenged with issues surrounding engine emissions, HVAC systems, drive trains and more, while the automotive side focused on steering and suspension, brakes, manual transmissions, automatic transmissions and other systems.

“They go through a lot of content in a short amount of time,” said Jason Hayes, the coordinator for San Juan College’s diesel technology program.

Don Beauregard, the coordinator of the automotive repair program at the college, said participants in the competition ranged from high school students in their first year of automotive repair classes to post-secondary students who had absorbed up to four years of such instruction. There were 150 students in the automotive competition and another 27 in the diesel competition.

Hayes said the students taking part in the competition will be entering a job market that offers them plenty of opportunities, if they complete their programs and earn a certification.

“There’s a huge starting skills gap in diesel and automotive,” he said, describing the shortage of qualified mechanics in both fields.

Hayes said there are some repair shops in San Juan County where the average age of a technician is in the 50s.

“And a lot of those are going to get hit by a wave of retirements in the next 10 years,” he said.

That situation is being mirrored in a great many skilled trades across the county, he said, a development of considerable concern to leaders of many industries.

“There aren’t enough (of those workers) now, let alone when people start to retire,” Hayes said, citing estimates that there is a shortage of up to 70,000 auto and diesel technicians nationwide.

Why that gap exists isn’t exactly clear, Beauregard said, noting that auto and diesel repair technicians can do very well in terms of compensation.

“In automotive, if they’re any good, they can easily do six figures,” he said, noting that one student who graduated from the San Juan College program in May started a new job at $38 an hour.

Hayes said he believes that the industry has suffered from the longtime push in this country to encourage almost everyone to get a college degree instead of getting a skilled trade certification.

“That did a disservice, and it created the idea that is a dirty or dishonorable profession,” he said. “ … For so long, they were told that skilled trades was not a good way to make a living. But the opposite is true.”

In fact, Hayes said, most people who graduate from a San Juan College skilled trades program make more money in their first give years than folks who have a bachelor’s degree.

Troy Brown, the interim dean of the San Juan College School of Trades and Technology, said officials from the Intel Corporation were at the college earlier this week recruiting students. But he said too many of the students enrolled in the college’s program haven’t developed the soft skills — namely, the ability to communicate effectively — to do well in an interview situation, thus hurting their chances of landing a higher-paying job once they’re ready to enter the job market.

“They’re all good technicians or they’re not going to get through here,” he said.

That has led Hayes and Beauregard to focus more and more on helping students build those soft skills in recent years. They now require their students to participate in mock interview sessions as part of their training. Beauregard said that lack of soft skills has become much more pronounced since the COVID-19 pandemic, when many students went through a prolonged period of social isolation.

“We have to coach them and practice with them,” he said.

Hayes said good automotive and diesel mechanics these days are expected to have the ability to be adaptable and flexible, as well as highly developed problem-solving skills.

Beauregard also said many of his students suffer from the mistaken idea that their skills as a mechanic are all they need to carve out a successful career for themselves.

“They don’t think they need math or English or psychology, but you need to have to be able to write an effective repair order,” he said.

The winners of Friday’s competition will advance to the state competition at Central New Mexico Community College in April. The first-place winners were Thomas Pipkin of San Juan College in the post-secondary automotive division, Todd Wedel of the Career Enrichment Center in Albuquerque in the high school automotive division, Andrew Stoner of San Juan College in the post-secondary diesel division and Rylan Darnell of San Juan College High School in the high school diesel division.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Skills USA competition features students from NM, Utah, Colorado