San Diego Automotive Educators Conference

On May 2nd, 2024 over 150 attendees got together to participate in this year’s Charged Up!, “Charged Up.” There was such strong support from the EV community represented by sponsors, speakers & OEMs like Tesla, Rivian, Chevrolet, Porsche, Toyota and Audi. 

Event organizers Omar Sevilla and Greg Quirin with San Diego Unified School District established the San Diego Automotive Educators Group over a decade ago and have been hosting annual automotive educators’ conferences envisioning a platform to unite automotive instructors and professionals. Their mission is clear—to navigate the intricate day-to-day operations of teaching automotive technology to high school and college students across Southern California. With a shared passion for preserving the technical trade of automotive technology, Omar and Greg aimed to cultivate the next generation of highly skilled automotive technicians.

As automotive technical training programs face decline nationwide, despite a soaring demand for automobiles, their cause has become even more critical. Over the years, Omar and Greg have dedicated countless hours to empower teachers and professionals with practical insights and success strategies in the field.

Their efforts bore fruit when they, along with Jonathan Kropp, established an Automotive Advisory Committee of  15 members. This committee convenes regularly to enhance the automotive education system in San Diego County, supporting over 25 local high school automotive programs and community colleges with a variety of programs.

In a significant stride forward, the creation of sdtechs.org, a dedicated website and committee for this group and conference, they have successfully forged partnerships with numerous automotive businesses and manufacturers. These partnerships solidify their commitment to bolstering the pipeline of future automotive technicians, strengthening career technical education and ensuring a thriving automotive industry.

It’s their desire to pursue and explore EVs from the lens of performance and technology as opposed to just environmental preservation.

Addressing the Labor Gap

Greg explained, “Omar and I have realized that the current environment for promoting automotive careers is not working that well both in education and in the automotive industry. In addition, many automotive programs across the nation are faced with huge challenges such as more college prep courses, and a lack of awareness of technical trades and potential earnings. This is equivalent to declining technical programs. Even 3 years ago Omar was faced with the reality of the automotive program at Madison being cut and even myself recently when I was notified my position that I have been in for 18 years was going to be excessed. Fortunately for Omar and I, our positions were recalled and we are good for another year, however this isn’t always the case as districts across California are faced with cutting technical programs for a variety of reasons.”

“What we do know is that there are 21 high school automotive programs and 5 community college programs in San Diego County. Omar and I have a vision to keep working across multiple districts to improve instruction and engage multiple OEM dealerships and independent shops to provide opportunities for students and automotive instructors across SD county.”

The First of Its Kind

This event was the first to host the Automotive Educators Conference with a 100% focus on electric vehicles. To the best of their knowledge, this is the very first in the nation to do this, which is a huge step forward in Automotive Education. This conference had a specific focus on EVs because they wanted to unravel any myths and fears about the EV space. In the automotive industry and from the side of consumers, they find that many people are still so close-minded to EV technology and resist the inevitable wave of industry change. It’s their desire to pursue and explore EVs from the lens of performance and technology as opposed to just environmental preservation.

“We all value our environment and see potential for this technology, but we are still manufacturing new cars and stripping raw materials from Earth”, says Sevilla.

Currently very few programs have true “partnerships” with EV companies. Saddleback College has led the charge into the EV space with most community colleges; having sponsored manufacturer programs supporting some EV sections. Companies like ReVolt Systems out of Oceanside, California  occasionally take interns from Mira Costa College and local high schools as well.

The EV wave is strong and it will be here for years to come.

Hands On and Moving Forward

Greg and Omar are huge supporters of hands-on work. Most conferences and professional development courses are predictable with hour-long lectures and handouts, but they wanted this event to be different.  A lot of time was spent discussing the vision of hands-on workshops and several phone calls to partners were made to ensure this happened. With most companies/sponsors open-minded and optimistic about taking on the “hands-on vision”, Legacy EV & Switch Lab stepped up to run workshops, and  we even saw a demonstration of a live battery pack swap by ReVolt Systems. ASE, California New Car Dealers Association, the San Diego Auto Museum, Discount Tire, Snap On, and CDX showed their support as well, and  attendees definitely came out of this event with feelings of a bright future for education in the automotive space.

In closing, Omar stated, “It was very motivating to see this large scale event come to fruition. As our vision evolved we wanted to make sure we are bringing passion and value to our educators and partners. I call our event a success mostly because we have delivered a message to our leaders and attendees that the EV wave is strong and it will be here for years to come. I have seen dozens of posts on social media, received phone calls and emails about how this event has motivated them as well. We are discussing what next year’s event will look like and are optimistic that it will continue to grow.”

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