The Auto Care Association Education Committee recently presented the ACE Award to National Pronto Association, Motor Information Systems and Genuine Parts Co./NAPA.
The ACE (Auto Care Career and Education) Award recognizes firms for their dedication “to investing in the growth of their employees’ knowledge and skills and offering professional development and career opportunities,” according to the Auto Care Association.
The 2017 ACE Award winners are:
Small Company – National Pronto Association, Grapevine, Texas
The association recognized National Pronto for:
- Training and education opportunities for employees
- Dedicating budget to training and education
- Providing employees with a variety of training and education methods, including online classes, on-site classrooms, webinars and printed materials as well as on-the-job training and mentoring
Medium-Sized Company – Motor Information Systems, Troy, Mich.
The association recognized Motor for:
- Developing two key learning programs – SEED and M-Talks
- SEED – The Software Engineering Education and Development Program – is designed to develop and refine the software expertise of a select set of high-performing employees across Hearst Media by placing them in a six-month technology skills-development program.
- M-Talks spans across the enterprise to deepen knowledge and understanding on a wide variety of business topics. Presentations occur monthly, and feedback is regularly solicited and directly included into the program.
- Investment in education is highlighted through a variety of factors, such as dedicated training funds, use of a learning management system, cloud-based training materials and more.
Large Company – Genuine Parts Co./NAPA, Atlanta
The association recognized NAPA for:
- A robust training department, which is involved from the beginning in all new projects and initiatives across departments so they can determine training needs early
- Train-the-trainer sessions and encouraging trainers to observe each other’s classes to encourage their own learning and promote consistent delivery
- The LEAD store-manager training program
- LEAD is an exclusive program, graduating more than 100 qualified store manager candidates per year from a six-month program that consists of classroom training sessions, hands-on mentored training in stores, more than 60 e-learning programs, and active coaching for each participant by four field managers from their district and division.
