Teacher transforms auto shop class for future tech jobs

WEST NEW YORK, N.J.—The auto shop class at Memorial High School in West New York was on the fast track to being eliminated when Ron Grosinger began teaching it in 2005.

The course offered a basic introduction to automotive mechanics, with too much memorization and the occasional turning of a wrench. Similar to many other shop classes across the country, student interest — in taking the course and in learning about auto repair in general — was dwindling.

"Shop classes have a bad impression surrounding them," Mr. Grosinger told Automotive News. "People say this cliché thing, 'I guess if they're not going to college, they can always do a trade,' like it's a step down.

"That couldn't be further from the truth," he says. "But that aura had taken its toll on this class."

Mr. Grosinger decided to overhaul the curriculum. In 2008, he introduced a major after-school project aimed at building student interest: converting a gasoline-powered 1990 Volkswagen Rabbit to an electric vehicle, at a time when EVs were still a relative novelty.

Since then, Mr. Grosinger has continued to transform the class — focusing on electric motors, emphasizing design and engineering and promoting hands-on learning. He's generated sustained student enrollment as well as approval from parents and school administrators.

Mr. Grosinger teaches 80 students in his four classes. Alumni of the shop course work as dealership service technicians, study engineering in college and aspire to automotive careers.

Looking ahead

Industry groups such as the National Automobile Dealers Association say that if the shortage of service techs is to ease, potential candidates need to be identified and trained even earlier than when they attend community colleges or trade school. And they need to learn tomorrow's technology, not just today's.

Mr. Grosinger has his students work with electric vehicles (EVs) to prepare them for future careers. Shop classes typically fail, he adds, because they offer only a designated set of rules and repairs, making it too easy for students to lose focus. He concentrates instead on giving students creative freedom to take something apart, design it and rebuild it.

Since the VW Rabbit undertaking, Mr.Grosinger has introduced projects such as adapting a biodiesel 2000 VW Jetta to run on vegetable oil. For the past few years, he has worked with students on building a replica Lotus Seven sports car from scratch as an EV, using original Lotus blueprints.

Mr. Grosinger says he funds these projects through various grants, public and private.

Talent pipeline needed

For the past decade, Volkswagen Group of America has helped operate an academy at a community college near VW's assembly plant in Chattanooga to train apprentices for automotive careers. The academy also instructs high school students in a partnership with the local school district.

Ilker Subasi, who manages the apprentice program, says high school classes such as the academy's and Mr. Grosinger's are essential to developing a talent pipeline for the industry. Students' and parents' perspective on working with cars needs to change, he says.

"There is a stigma in the community" that such work "is noisy, dirty and unsafe," Subasi says. "A lot of young talent in the school system doesn't even get a chance to look into it."