The Southland Motor Car Dealers Association (SMCDA) partnered with Cerritos College long before hybrid cars became popular — and that partnership is not showing signs of slowing down anytime soon.
SMCDA was founded in 1932 and represents the majority of new car and truck dealerships in southern Los Angeles County. Its partnership with Cerritos College started in the early 2000s and has grown into a full-fledged curriculum that includes 220 hours of employment.
“Most of the students are working on service management jobs, have several jobs that would lead them to other jobs at auto dealerships,” said SMDA Executive Director Todd Leutheuser.
The program is structured so that students spend nine weeks at Cerritos and nine weeks at one of SMCDA’s dealers. During their time on site, dealers can determine whether they want to hire the students and start planting the seeds for a long-term career path.
“One of the people came in from a 14 dealership group who started out as a technician 30 years ago,” Leutheuser said.” He’s now the director of fixed operations for the 14 dealership group and an example of how you can go from a technician to a coat and tie kind of guy.”
Leutheuser said SMCDA’s dealerships are looking to hire students who can fix cars on the road today and also have the capacity to keep up with changing technologies as the auto industry continues to evolve.
He pointed to self-driving vehicles as one trend auto workers need to be ready for and said Cerritos has been great about bringing in the most up-to-date technology for its students to use.
“This is no longer a field where you can say ‘I’m good with my hands so I’ll be a good technician.’ You need to have cognitive skills so you don’t become obsolete,” Leutheuser said.
Leutheuser works closely with Jannet Malig, CETI Deputy Sector Navigator in the Los Angeles/Orange County region, in an effort to promote student success in the auto industry. “SMCDA and Cerritos College have worked together for many years on grants and special projects that benefit the organization as well as the college,” said Malig.
