Retail Observer

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?

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