Circumventing IDL training

[GMServMgr]

Look, we all know the importance of training but I know shops out there that can't afford to have a tech spending hours flipping through a CDROM training lesson.

At home I was doing the WINS warranty course after my warranty administrator told me she fell asleep during it. I found that the program simply makes a standard Microsoft Access file (using Visual Basic) to record the test results and partipation scores. Within a few minutes I was able to get into this very lightly password protected file and mimic my scores for several employees. The end result was with a little effort I could have reported that eight employees all took the course and got perfect scores.

I know we are all talking publically here, but has anyone looked into doing the same thing for other IDL courses? Again, I believe people should be trained, but GM's IDL is not real training and in the most part worthless.

Feel free to email me confidentially at gmservmgr@usa.com

[Alan D. Goff]

At my dealership we have a very very strong feeling about training in the service department. 1st we look at what we need to meet GM standards, then we look at what each tech is doing on a daily basis and what areas he needs for further knowledge, then we ask the tech what areas he wants to grow in. Yes there are ways to get by the CBT's and have one person do them and many receive credit. Also I have seen techs do a CBT that should have taken 3 hours in less then one hour. Did he learn anything, no. But thats to his disadvantage and he knows it when he is to work on a system that he had training for and I will not give him full other hours because he did not have a clue.....IDL is better then nothing and hands on, I wish it was slightly different but still good training. I hope that some of the techs at your store want to learn, because as vehicles change, so do the tools and knowledge you need to work on them.....and you can get hurt if you dont know what your doing (how much power is at the fuel injectors on a 6.6 Duramax, what is the voltage for the headlights on the Cad version of the sub.?) If your techs dont know this, I hope someone knows CPR......one of the biggest advantages of being at a dealership vs independent is training...and take that away and you have less then independents........