Lube mechanic jobs serve as a great point of entry for aspiring mechanics to get a feel for the automotive repair industry. However, after a couple years, they’ll be looking to move on from oil changes and tire rotations to more skilled operations like brake repairs, electrical maintenance, and tire alignments. Their greatest source of anxiety is how and when?

The Auto Repair Industry Has a Problem with Career Advancement

All too often, repair shops and dealerships struggle to find time for their veteran mechanics to train their lube mechanics in order to advance their career. Not to mention, learning from a veteran mechanic in the shop is expensive and inefficient and actually hurts employee morale and retention.

An Automotive News article says younger mechanics are desperately seeking a clear career path from the quick-lube lane to master-mechanic status. However, when career paths are unclear and advancement becomes stagnant, lube techs are sure to find work elsewhere.

Employee retention is a critical component of any business, especially in the auto repair industry as mechanics continue to age and retire with fewer candidates entering the field. Yet, the turnover rate among dealerships has increased to over 27% per the previously mentioned Automotive News article, compared to the 18% turnover rate across all industries. When you’ve already put so much time into training your lube mechanics to your shop culture, it only wastes time and money having to find and train a replacement, putting you back at square one.

Two-Week Training for Lube Mechanics

In the spirit of challenging what has always been, consider this the next time you look at the hours, unapplied time and charted advancement schedule of your lube mechanics: Shops that don’t actively accelerate young mechanic growth are at the same risk of losing them just like everybody else.

Matrix Trade Institute’s revolutionary bootcamps can train a lube mechanic to be productive, efficient and confident in upselling and performing steering and suspension, brakes, general service efficiency and basic electrical operations. That’s about 70 percent of your business. By establishing a clear career path, your lube techs will be more productive and make you more profitable.

MTI offers two-week, 30-hour efficiency boot camps to help dealerships and repair shops increase the potential of their lube mechanics by being more productive and efficient. Over the course of two weeks, your employees will split their time at your shop and our training program to keep production going. Local SkillUp training in Cuyahoga County can even reimburse your cost to train your workforce up to 100%.

We offer four skill advancement and efficiency boot camps: steering and suspension, brake repair, basic electric, and general service efficiency. As an added benefit, your lube mechanics will be eligible for a 50% discount on Matco tools during their training, so they can minimize tool debt and come back to your shop ready to earn.

Contact us today to learn more about our training modules and see how we can make your lube mechanics more confident and efficient in two weeks.