By Rob Munro
AERA had the opportunity recently to attend our first homeschool trade show in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, called “Teach Them Diligently Homeschool Convention.” We were encouraged to exhibit at this show by one of our members who hires homeschool students. He mentioned that there is an untapped market of future hires with homeschoolers, and we need to check this show out! Since we’re always taking calls from member shops about where they can look to find their next engine builder, we thought that this show might help give us a few out of the box ideas, as well as allow us to show all the attendees AERA’s products and services including our Engine Machinists Online Training Program.
Our booth at this show didn’t disappoint, we had Cass Choate from Choate Engineering Performance and a few of his crew set up a Ford 6.7 diesel that was completely rebuilt. Cass had one of his homeschooled employees disassemble and reassemble the engine throughout the show, did I mention that he was only 14 years old! Yes, you read that right, since he only homeschools until noon, it frees up the afternoons for shop work. The Ford 6.7 isn’t the easiest engine to tackle, watching him work on it, he looked like he’d been assembling for years. This really caught the attention of everyone walking by; they could see that this kind of work may be a good fit for one of their sons or daughters. This was the first time that I’ve worked at a show where we were completely cleaned out of brochures and business cards by the second day! There was a huge interest in what we do.
Read this article with all images in the digital issue of Engine Professional magazine https://engineprofessional.com/2023EPQ3/#p=34
As folks stopped by to ask questions, it also gave us the opportunity to do the same with them to learn more. Homeschooling is a family commitment, in most cases there is only one working parent and families must make some financial sacrifices to homeschool. They do everything as a family and are very involved with each other’s success. Homeschoolers do get a diploma that is accepted by most colleges and universities. Parents are responsible for maintaining education records and creating graduation requirements to issue a homeschool diploma. Because of the flexibility and extra hours that homeschooled students have, including no commute to and from school, they are more likely to have an impressive resume that includes a variety of skill sets, and life experiences. We were told more than once that homeschoolers make great employees.
Since there are nearly 4 million homeschooled students in the USA and Canada, could your next machinist be one of them? Some of the traits that we learned were that homeschoolers are a unique source of talent. They’re smart, ambitious, very driven with a good work ethic and high level of loyalty to a business. The other thing that caught our eye when they walked by our booth was that none of them were on a phone, we learned that they don’t watch much TV and they do read a lot. Even though trade show hours can feel long, nothing keeps you motivated more than speaking with a group of young folks who are asking lots of questions about vehicles and engines, this show was no different.
We met several parents at the show who help teach at a Homeschool Co-op. A co-op simply fills in the gaps of homeschooling by allowing for socialization, activities, tutoring, and life skill classes like mechanics. They usually meet once per week. The focus is often on the electives that traditional schools would offer and the AERA Engine Machinist Online Training Program is a perfect fit. It also gives the parents a chance to switch off and help educate each other’s kids. Many of them had hot rod vehicle projects and restorations on the go and were eager to share their stories with us. You’ve probably heard the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child” well this could not be truer than in the homeschool community.
Now you are probably asking yourself, why did I talk so much about Homeschooling in this article? It’s simply to get you thinking in a different direction when it comes to looking for future employees. There’s no doubt that most shops have established relationships with their local high schools and colleges for recruitment, but what about a relationship with your state homeschool association or community homeschool Co-op? I know we came back from this show excited, with nearly 4 million homeschool students out there, it’s worth an email or phone call to your local homeschool community to check out.
If you would like more information on AERA’s Online Engine Machinist Program, go to aera.org/training or give me a call at 815-526-7345.
Read this article with all images in the digital issue of Engine Professional magazine https://engineprofessional.com/2023EPQ3/#p=34