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Dealer Sponsors and Placement
To complete the ASSET
program, a student must be employed by a sponsoring Ford,
Lincoln, Mercury, or Mazda dealer.
The dealership service department
provides work experience under the guidance of an experienced
technician during the Paid Cooperative Work Experience.
To obtain a sponsor:
Ž
Complete at least 4 technical classes and 4 non-technical
classes in the Maintenance and Light Repair section of the
program.
See Plan of Study.
Ž
Contact the
Ford ASSET Coordinator for a pre-sponsorship interview.
Ž
Prepare
resume so that the coordinator can send it to prospective
dealers.
Ž
The
Coordinator will contact dealers to obtain interview
opportunities.
Ž
The student
must then interview with prospective dealers. When choosing a dealer,
the student needs to consider the long-term goals he/she has.
The dealer is part of this program
because he/she wants to “grow their own” technicians.
The dealer wants a well-trained
entry-level technician by the end of the program that is willing
to work for them long-term.
Although there is no legal contract
that requires you to stay with the dealer, it is best for the
student, the dealer and future students in the ASSET program
when a long-term relationship exists.
The dealer will spend a lot of
time, energy, and money to train the student.
Obviously, he/she needs to realize
a return on that investment.
Carefully choosing the dealer ahead
of time helps to develop a good long-term relationship with the
sponsoring dealership.
Cooperative Work Experience
The Cooperative Work
Experience (Co-op) is the ingredient that makes ASSET work so
well.
After some on-campus course work
(see Plan of Study), the student goes to the sponsoring dealer
for real-world work experience.
An experienced technician is
assigned the task of mentoring the student.
He/she gives the student vehicles
to diagnose and repair under his/her supervision.
The “lead-tech” is responsible for
assigning the correct type of work, verifying the student’s
diagnosis, and then checking the completed repairs before the
vehicle leaves the dealership. The customer vehicle
concerns scheduled into the dealership each day ultimately
determines the type of work that is assigned to the student.
The lead-tech is encouraged to
assign the type of work that will reinforce what was taught
during the previous quarter technical classes.
The goal is to have the student
working on those previous quarter skills at least 60% of the
time.
The remainder of the time can be
skills learned earlier in the program or can even be vehicles or
systems that the student is not familiar with yet.
Obviously, close supervision by the
lead-tech is required in this case. The student is required
to maintain a logbook during the co-op quarter.
In this book, he/she will track
work hours and attendance, the tasks he/she has accomplished,
and the vehicles that he/she has worked on.
The purpose of the logbook is to
help the student determine his/her own progress in skill
development and productivity. Paid work experience continued...
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