Alcoa Awards $40,000 Aluminum Training Grant to Collision Repair Education Foundation

The Collision Repair Education Foundation has announced that Alcoa Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Alcoa, awarded the Collision Repair Education Foundation a $40,000 grant that will provide educational and aluminum repair training to post-secondary collision instructors and students. Collision instructors and students will have the opportunity to apply for the aluminum repair training grant as part of the Collision Repair Education Foundation’s spring 2013 student scholarship/tool grant opportunities. Seventeen collision instructor/student pairs will be selected to attend aluminum repair technical training at the I-CAR Tech Centre in Appleton, Wisc., during the summer of 2013.

"The work of the Collision Repair Education Foundation is spot-on with our desire to educate and train people for important STEM-related trades, including automotive repair,” said Randall Scheps, director of marketing for Alcoa Automotive. “As the mix of materials in this market continues to change as consumers seek more fuel efficient vehicles, this work is even more important – though it will also make it evident that working with and repairing aluminum is actually no more difficult that any other material. It’s just different.”

Added Collision Repair Education Foundation Executive Director Clark Plucinski, “As more and more of today’s and future vehicles are being constructed with aluminum, it is crucial that repair professionals complete aluminum repair technical training in order to repair consumers' collision damaged vehicles properly. Through this Alcoa grant, not only will instructors gain technical training that they can bring back to their classroom for additional students, but the students will have completed industry-recognized I-CAR aluminum repair training, making them more employable to the industry. I thank Alcoa for their support, and we look forward to working together with them and I-CAR on training the future repair professionals of the collision industry.”