Staying up to date

As electric vehicles (EVs) continue to pose safety challenges for automotive recyclers, the Manassas, Virginia-based Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) identified a need to aggregate its educational and training offerings under one umbrella and established the Automotive Recycling Training Institute (ARTI) in 2021 to streamline its educational materials and update existing courses. 

ARA first launched its auto recycling training solution, ARA University, in 2006 through the ARA Educational Foundation. The program, an ARA member benefit, offers online certification programs on compliance training, safety training and skills-specific education.  

Sandy Blalock, ARA executive director, says much of the training available had not been updated to meet the changing needs of auto recyclers until a few years ago. 

“We had a lot of legacy training that we had developed many years ago that we just felt needed reviewed, updated [and] changes made that are directed more at vehicles that recyclers are seeing more prevalently in our facilities,” she says. “Some of that training was done 10 years or more ago, [and] cars have changed quite a bit in the last 10 years.” 

The organization launched ARTI approximately three years ago to replace its original educational foundation and take over operating ARA University. 

Blalock says this change allowed ARA to streamline and better focus its curriculum, and with its own board of directors and team of employees, the organization can ensure ARTI and its educational materials are a main priority. 

“It does have its own board of directors and a group of people [where] all they do is work on training for [ARTI] and bringing that together,” she says. “It’s really helped us dial in the focus for the training.” 

Fundraising was another reason behind the change. Because ARTI is a 501(c)3 foundation, it allows ARA to apply for a variety of grants to raise money for training and workforce development.  

Refocusing 

In the last several years, ARA has identified key aspects of the evolving auto recycling industry that have helped refocus its curriculum. The wide adoption of EVs and hybrid vehicles has posed safety challenges for recyclers, which ARA University’s courses now reflect, as Blalock says EVs bring an entirely new perspective to safety training.  

“We’re not talking about something that can hurt you, we’re talking something that can kill you if you’re not handling it correctly,” she says.  

This need inspired the creation of ARA University’s program dedicated to high-voltage vehicle certification training. The university also is developing a fire safety training program to address the increasing number of facility fires caused by high-voltage batteries.  

Blalock says these resources have been identified as “vitally important,” and certain materials have been made available on the ARA website to nonmembers. The Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technology Guide contains a guide for recyclers to ensure they are safely handling potentially hazardous material, and the EV Battery Database identifies more than 7,700 batteries that need to be removed from vehicles and properly recycled. Although companies must be registered with ARA to access the training courses, these written guides have been made accessible to all.  

“We felt there were a lot of resources that we should be sharing with the industry,” Blalock says. “If an auto recycler has a Tesla that they are going to dismantle, they can go [to the ARA University website] and print out the sheet and it shows them where all the batteries are.” 

Other free resources include facility tours and webinars.  

To ensure courses are accurate and up-to-date, ARTI’s board of directors researches industry trends to compile training materials. The board of directors consists of professional auto recyclers, who Blalock says know “instinctively” the challenges facing the industry through looking at their own teams. She says many board members will sit in on courses to help identify areas of improvement.  

“Like everything in our organization, we’re a member-driven organization,” Blalock says. “That’s what auto recyclers are good about. They’re very good about expressing what their needs are. We’re just here to make sure that we fill the needs [of our members].” 

Courses are constantly under review and updated as the industry demands. 

Offerings and updates

ARA University offers approximately 70 courses in inventory, plant production, sales training, health and safety, management training and owner, CEO and president training. 

Blalock says the curriculum is designed to allow each facility to designate specific training for its employees, with courses often assigned based on an employee’s role in the business. Trainees are tested at the end of each module and receive certification upon completion.  

Since transferring all educational materials to ARTI, ARA has prioritized updating its educational catalogue to include courses in Spanish and further increase the accessibility of its materials. Blalock says many of the newer modules are being developed in English and Spanish, while existing courses will be updated based on the priorities of the industry. 

“Every single training module that ARA developed is under review,” she says. “We will be adding Spanish as we can to all of those. … We intend to have every educational asset available in Spanish as well.” 

Many of ARA University’s safety training courses have been developed in partnership with Westminster, Colorado-based KPA, a safety and compliance training course developer, and already are offered in Spanish.  

ARA University’s inventory courses are among its high-priority modules, with the Inventory Specialist and Parts Grading course one of the top five most popular across its catalogue. Other popular courses include Rough Terrain Forklift, Hybrid New Technology, Phone Skills/Sales Tools and Sales Phone Skill Tune-Up.  

As previously reported by Recycling Today, ARTI partnered with Middletown, Rhode Island-based Shift in October 2023 on the Shift Vehicle Retirement Initiative, an end-of-life vehicle (ELV) program that provides incentives for certified automotive recyclers to reuse as many original equipment parts as possible. Although similar to other vehicle donation programs, Shift allows consumers, fleets and enterprises to choose to have their vehicle recycled by an ARA member, with all net proceeds of the program returned to ARTI.  

Blalock says with more training and resources made available, the auto recycling industry can continue to put the best products forward.  

“We just want to make sure that the training supports an auto recycler’s opportunity to get the most out of every vehicle that they process… and be able to remain profitable [by] putting all the parts to the highest and best use,” she says.