General Motors dealers employ 23 percent more technicians than they did in 2021, a sign that the automaker’s sizable investments in training, retention and recruitment are beginning to pay off. That’s according to Aaron Charbonneau, GM’s director of dealer, service and warranty operations. Technician apprenticeships are also up 18 percent in that time, while the number of “world-class technicians,” or those with the highest level of training, has doubled, he said. Training Programs Gain Momentum.
“There’s lots of work to do still,” Charbonneau said. “I would tell you across our dealer network, we would take 1,000 more technicians tomorrow, or multiple thousands. But the momentum over the last four years with a lot of these programs and with the overall number of technicians at the dealers has been really, really cool to see.”
The gains are important for GM’s U.S. dealer network, which depends on service departments to drive profitability and retain customers. The need for highly skilled technicians has grown in recent years as sales of electric vehicles have risen and as advanced driver-assistance systems and other technologies have become more commonplace.
New programs close gap in trained technicians
GM, like the rest of the U.S. auto industry, faces a massive technician shortage. Dealerships need to replace about 76,000 service technicians annually, but only about 39,000 of them graduate from technical colleges and training programs each year, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.
To help close that gap, GM has launched new programs and retooled others in recent years. It works with high schools and colleges around the U.S. to provide students with basic training, has retrained and upskilled existing technicians, and has invested in its Shifting Gears program that trains veterans and service members exiting the U.S. military.
“It’s this whole ecosystem,” Charbonneau said. “It all fits together in different ways, and we try to pull from all of them.”
At the heart of GM’s strategy is its Automotive Service Educational Program. A two-year associate degree initiative begun in 1979 that is taught at 53 schools across the country. ASEP in 2025 had its highest enrollment, with about 1,500 students, he said.
GM donates about 250 vehicles to the program each year, allowing for hands-on training with the latest technology, Charbonneau said.
“If we want the future workforce to be ready and able to service our vehicles, they have to have the product to work on,” he said.
Hands-on training is crucial to GM’s strategy. GM’s Service Technical College, which trains and upskills current dealership technicians, has 32 locations nationwide.
GM educates employees on technology, manufacturing at tech center
GM also brings technicians to its Technical Center in suburban Detroit. Hosting both a service training center and the automaker’s Technical Learning University.
The university is primarily geared toward GM employees. Teaching how vehicles are made and the latest in advanced manufacturing, electrification and other emerging technologies. The university trains as many as 3,000 GM workers per year in fields related to robotics, wiring and vehicle assembly.
The automaker is increasingly bringing its service technician trainers and other dealer-centric workers to its university, too. Last fall, GM hosted its ASEP instructors to show how wiring harnesses are built and incorporated into vehicles.
“It’s not the intent of this place, but we realize when you have people coming here to see how harnesses are constructed and why they operate the way they do, it helps as you’re out talking to dealer technicians and solve inevitable issues that come up,” Charbonneau said.
GM is consistently reevaluating how and what it teaches technicians, said David Piper, a technical training manager. For example, as GM adds new eyes-off capabilities to its Super Cruise driver-assistance system by 2028, it’s likely to overhaul its technician training in the months before, he said.
“As things move, we have to be ahead of it,” Piper said.
Piper said he hopes the technician shortage will ease as GM continues to invest in training and the industry works to make young people aware of career opportunities.
“Forty years ago, tech careers were great. That was the way for everyone to go,” he said. “I think it’s back on the rise.”
Source: Training Programs Gain Momentum
GM dealers adding technicians as training programs gain momentum
https://www.autonews.com/retail/service-and-parts/an-gm-service-learning-center-0327/
https://www.techedmagazine.com/category/industries/automotive/
