Training Trainers - OSREN

Earlier this month I was invited to a vocational school in Tainan, Taiwan, to give a lecture and hand’s on training on automotive paintwork polishing. I must say it was something rather new to me, though I am a product technician and part of my job is to share my knowledge and experience through training, short courses and seminars to professional detailers and enthusiast.

This time, however I was asked to give a one day seminar to vocational school teachers whom teaches automotive subjects such as, maintenance repairs, overhauling, painting, polishing and cleaning etc. The biggest challenge for me is not the subject itself but the fact that I had to teach teachers on how to teach students the subject, the basics of polishing.

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous in the beginning but before I started, one of the teachers came to me and said: “No worries Henry, all of us here in this school had our first day in class teaching, I know how you feel, we won’t make life difficult for you, hahaha”.

With that being said, I started and went on and before I even realized I was already very natural in speaking my thoughts and conveying my years of knowledge to them.

I started by introducing the rotary polisher + DA and letting the teachers to hands on the machines.

Although some of them are already teaching the subject, they still manage to pick some new pointers on how to express the methods of polishing to the students. After that, I went on to show them what polishing really is with illustrations and what cutting and finishing means.

And a little extra, head lamps restoration + Coating.

The following day was a field trip day for the teachers of the school to visit and see how detailers operate their business and have better insights on what the current industry is dealing with.

From this experience, I realized one thing, I realized the function of a school (at least a high school). A school is there, not to make you super smart, nor to make you very skilled. The teachers are not necessarily the best in that particular field yet he or she is still qualified to teach. Why?

Because, the main function of that school in particular is to allow each student to have a feel of the industry and to see where the students interest are, so that they can pursue a future for themselves. For a school, as long as the students find and realize their interest, the school has already succeeded. And that for me is the main function of a school.