The automotive industry faces a growing crisis: as veteran trainers and educators retire, there’s no clear path for the next generation to replace them. Creating quality training is time-intensive — often taking months to develop just one class — and the personal sacrifices required have deterred many from stepping up.

This episode explores the urgent need to evolve automotive education, from rethinking long-form classes to developing shorter, high-impact sessions that better fit today’s learning styles. At the heart of the conversation is a proposed solution: an industry “Trainer Boot Camp” designed to teach aspiring educators not only technical knowledge but also the art of presentation — structure, flow, delivery, and audience engagement.

Another proposed solution is the creation of a Train the Trainers Scholarship to fund legacy educators like John Thornton and Scot Manna to design and lead this new initiative. Modeled after the WWE’s NXT Performance Center, the idea is to proactively cultivate new education “superstars” rather than waiting for them to appear on their own.

This is more than a conversation about teaching — it’s a call to action to preserve and reinvent the future of automotive education before the knowledge gap becomes irreversible.

Matt Fanslow, Riverside Automotive, Red Wing, MN, Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z Podcast

Tanner Brandt, Autodiag Clinic