Vehicle repair professionals from across the Chicago area as well as reality TV star Danny “The Count” Koker took part in the grand opening of the Garage Gurus regional training center in Skokie, Ill., Tuesday evening.
Garage Gurus is a first-of-its-kind, nationwide technical education network for vehicle repair technicians, shop owners and other professionals.
Created by Federal-Mogul Motorparts, the network will comprise 15 training centers by the end of the year. Federal-Mogul Motorparts is a division of Federal-Mogul Holdings Corporation.
The new Skokie training center offers an extensive curriculum of onsite, online and on-demand courses designed to help technicians, shop owners, service writers and other front-line professionals stay on the leading edge of vehicle technology. Accessing critical diagnostic and repair information and related skills-based training has long been a challenge for the nation’s nearly 220,000 automotive repair businesses.
“We expect this location to become a training hub for the Chicago area’s more than 6,200 automotive and commercial-vehicle repair businesses,” said CEO of Federal-Mogul Motorparts Dan Ninivaggi. “These local businesses and their thousands of employees need and deserve aggressive, highly accessible support as they diagnose and repair each new vehicle technology, from brakes and suspension to engine systems. Garage Gurus is an important new investment in their future.”
The classroom at the Skokie location holds up to 30 students, and courses will begin soon.
Repair professionals and other guests had the opportunity to tour the 15,000-square-foot training center, meet several of Federal-Mogul Motorparts’ ASE-certified “Gurus,” inspect two of the network’s Web-connected “Gurus-on-the-Go” product technology vans and try a variety of new eLearning modules.
There are currently 18 technology vans in operation, all of which are equipped with wireless connectivity, and the company plans to have more than 50 vans on the road by the end of the year.
Special guests included Koker, star of History’s popular Counting Cars reality TV series, and nationally recognized graffiti artist Antonio “Shades” Agee, who was commissioned to “tag” one of the Skokie training center’s classrooms.
Each Garage Gurus training center includes multiple vehicle repair/training bays and classrooms. Each location also serves as the operating base for one or more “Gurus-On-The-Go” product technology vans. The Garage Gurus curriculum comprises more than 100 diagnostic and repair courses, including onsite workshops, field clinics and distance learning modules and webinars offered at www.FMgaragegurus.com. All training, product demonstrations and related assistance are available in English and Spanish languages.
Garage Gurus is a central element of Federal-Mogul Motorparts’ “Tech First” initiative aimed at strengthening the automotive service industry’s connection to the front-line professionals, who service vehicles each day. In addition to offering technical training and other assistance, the network is designed to underscore the importance of using premium branded replacement parts engineered and manufactured to provide the quality, safety and performance consumers demand.
