RETAILOBSERVER.COM MARCH 2021
62
I
t's a question that many have been asking for years. Now,
thanks to the pandemic, it's become apparent that appliance
repair is a very essential business. It's become an issue that has
been featured in newsprint articles and TV news programs.
The answer is simple. There are not enough qualified Appliance
Service Technicians (AST) to meet the demand for appliance
repair. The issue has been well known in the appliance service
industry for several years. The sad fact is that the appliance dealers,
manufacturers, and the appliance service industry as a whole have
done very little to address the nationwide shortage of ASTs. To be
fair, there are a couple of organizations that have dabbled in trying
to address the shortage of an ATS within their own organization to
benefit their brands and customers. But this does nothing to
address the nationwide shortage of ASTs that affects all appliance
brands and customers.
However, there's one group that is trying to address this issue on
a national unilateral brand approach that will benefit ALL brands
and ALL the customers of those brands.
The SkillsUSA National Major Appliance & Refrigeration
Technology (MART) Technical Committee is a group of individuals
that represent manufacturers, parts distributors, trade associations,
third-party administrators and independent service organizations.
The group is led by Mark Pollitz and myself, and we've worked for
years to support the growth of the AST career path by supporting
technical schools, community colleges and high schools across
the country that offer a MART training program. The problem is
that there simply are not enough of these schools currently
offering MART programs. And that's why Mark and I have
spearheaded the effort to increase the number of educational
institutions offering MART programs. But our efforts have been
hampered by lack of resources and funding, so we are asking for
all manufacturers, parts distributors, trade associations, third-
party administrators, and independent service organizations that
would benefit from the growth of educational institutions with
MART programs to come together. To address the issue, we are
in the process of forming a consortium of industry leaders to
support the effort to reverse the trend. This will be for the common
good of the appliance service industry and it scustomers, as this
is a nationwide appliance service industry issue. Any organization
or individual that would like to be part of a nationwide effort to
grow the pool of ASTs for the present and future workforce,
please contact either myself or Mark.
Greg Doster Mark Pollitz
SkillsUSA SkillsUSA
MART National Technical MART National Technical
Committee Chairman Committee Co-Chairman
954-812-9695 386-290-9449
gdoster6@gmail.com mark.pollitz@yahoo.com
For more information on the MART National Technical Committee,
go to: skillsusa-mart.com. For more information
about SkillsUSA, go to: skillsusa.org.
Greg Doster
SkillsUSA MART National Technical Committee Chairman
SkillsUSA Florida Board of Directors Member
PSA Board of Directors Member
S E R V I C E D E P A R T M E N T
RO
SO... WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG
TO GET MY APPLIANCE REPAIRED?
