In Marty Supple’s automotive courses, students are elbow deep in car engines, sliding under half-open chassis and plugging away at what looks like tangles of wires in dashboards. These teens are getting high school and college credits, at the same time they’re earning above minimum wage as apprentices at nearby auto dealerships.
They’re learning how to become auto technicians, in a profession that needs roughly 5,600 or more workers to meet demand in California. Supple, 70, says there’s a gigantic nationwide shortage of skilled automotive technicians.
He teaches at Artesia High School in Lakewood, where nearly 9 out of 10 students receive free and reduced-price meals, and at Cerritos College, a community college in Los Angeles County. The campuses partner in a dual enrollment program where students undergo nine weeks of instruction and nine weeks of work.
Often that’s at Cerritos Auto Square, an auto mall a few miles from the schools that boasts 10,000 vehicles for sale at about two dozen dealerships. After completing the program, students get a certificate and an associate’s degree.
Supple’s courses are full at Artesia High. He also runs summer courses that start at 7:30 a.m. and last eight hours a day, four days a week, to replicate typical workdays. The summer courses have waiting lists, too.
Supple and I talked about how he imparts old-fashioned work values along with new tech know-how. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.
How soon can students take automotive courses for college credit? Can they start freshman year?
My theory: We’re all different, and thank god. There are some seniors that are bouncing off walls and barely learning, and then I have some freshmen coming in and they’re brilliant. Why would I limit anybody coming in? I’ve accepted freshmen in all my classes since I started teaching in 2006, so this is not an experiment.
You began teaching college, but after a year you were asked to teach high school students. What was that like?
Wow, the F-word is their favorite word. Their pants were six sizes too big, and they’re addicted to their phone.
I am very big on soft skills. I’m very big on employability … so I start whipping them into shape and most of them are receptive. And next thing you know, I’ve bonded with them.
It’s all about “yes,” “no,” “please,” “thank you,” “excuse me.” … Sit up in your chair. Cover your mouth when you yawn. Dress properly. You don’t have to have a lot of money, but respect is everything.
Some people go, “Don’t judge me.” I’m sorry. You’re judged every day you walk in the door and you want to get a job.
We go over resumes and how to act. I show them the interview process. … I show them how to do a job application.
Tell me about the relationship your program has with dealerships that allows for the apprenticeships.
Cerritos Auto Square has a bunch of dealers; it’s a whole strip of dealerships and it’s wonderful because there’s all these opportunities. With the program through Cerritos College we have relationships with dealers throughout Southern California.
You could call it an apprenticeship. They are getting paid, and they’re working under a tech. It’s not like they’re on their own learning; they’re being mentored. It’s a very successful program that Cerritos College has been doing over 30-some odd years.
But can a person make a living in auto repair in California?
If you’re good you can make well over $100,000 a year. A transmission technician, 10 years ago, he’s making $140,000 a year (if) he’s also working for a dealership. We’re in this old, old, old mindset. Can you survive? Yes, but you have to hustle. … You have to have a formalized education.
The problem with automotive education is this: There’s a minimal amount of education for some people and then they call themselves a technician. No, I’m into professional, formalized education through high school and college, so you get proper training to be a real technician.
With automotive, you could open up a mom-and-pop shop and really have minimal training. That dilutes us. People see the people (who) don’t really know that much … but they don’t see what’s in the dealerships. What they have to do is unbelievably amazing. They have to be smart, you know; it’s taking apart a modern car. … Cars have been computerized since the ‘70s.
School counselors … actually changed our industries for the negative. They’ll guide students who are poor behavior, who don’t know this or that, who are special needs, into auto and welding. All the other students, it’s like “You need to go to college.”
I thought high schools were told to stop “tracking” students, and to steer everyone toward college. Is that not true?
They want everybody to go to college. But what about college for welding? College for automotive? I always like this thing about hands-on (learning). You know what? I want my students to have hands-on money.
Now, is nursing hands-on? Yeah, OK. But they’re looked at as professionals and we’re not. Where do you draw the line on hands-on? What’s not hands-on?
Technicians are smart; they have to be. … Thank god for math and English because they give us what we need to train these people. But for some reason people think we’re devoid of those skills, and we’re the ones that really utilize those skills. I’ve had adults come in and ask “My son needs math in auto (class)?”
What are some of the new automotive tech skills your students get? And are students prepared for them?
So the district bought us a kit and … my students built an electric car. Do I teach about EVs? I have to. I don’t talk politics when it comes to that; I talk about options. I talk about electric cars all the time. Do you prefer hybrids? I talk about Priuses and we talk about the various hybrids out there. I talk about fuel cell technology. I talk about gasoline. Do I talk about diesel, biodiesel, E-85? All that. I have to. … I cover all the bases with technology in my classroom. And we’re equipped with a four-wheel alignment rack, a tire machine, spin balancers, scan tools. I talk a lot about technology because I have to.
The hardest thing is, most students aren’t even close, when they come in the door, about getting to that point with technology. … See, the problem we have in high school is the academic spread is from the bottom to the top, but most of them lie in the bottom of that spread. I have to teach basic math, I have to teach basic English skills.
Financial support for this story was provided by the Smidt Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation.
