The automotive industry faces a shortage of trained technicians, with tens of thousands of job openings expected each year over the next decade. In Charlotte, one program equips community members with the tools and skills they need to fill the labor shortage.
A silver Pontiac rose on a lift in a garage near South End. Tomas Murdock, 21, changed a tire nearby.
“This is definitely a stepping stone towards the right way I want to go,” Murdock said.
Murdock is enrolled — for free — in a nonprofit’s automotive vocational training program. Baltimore-based NCIA, formerly known as the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, provides services and training to marginalized people, including the formerly incarcerated, the disabled and at-risk youth.
Murdock says his future was murky before he joined the program.
“I was working a little bit of dead-end jobs,” Murdock said. "I was still in the automotive field working at parts stores and stuff, junk yards, disassembling cars and stuff.”
Murdock is one of 21 individuals in the automotive program in Charlotte. NCIA focuses on supporting underserved individuals who rely on items like bus passes and food stamps, something Murdock also leans on.
“It does help out a lot,” Murdock said. “It does keep me going.”
Murdock is Afro Latino. About 98% of the people who typically enroll in NCIA’s program identify as Black or African American.
“It feels really good. Because I was definitely at a point in my life where I was like, ‘I don’t even know what to do.’ I definitely needed something,” Murdock said. "And this being here was like the right place, right time. And seeing that there’s a program like this for the people who can’t, it’s a rewarding feeling to be in here.”
Christine Poltawsky is NCIA’s program director. The group also offers a four-month program on heating, ventilation, and air conditioning — HVAC — repairs. Poltawsky says NCIA provides trade labor training in part because others don’t.
“For so many years, high schools were pushing universities and college attendance, and the trades, no one was really taking them up for one reason or the other,” Poltawsky said.
“And now we've reached a point where many of the people who've worked in HVAC or automotive are retiring.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment for automotive service technicians and mechanics to grow by 5% from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all other occupations. BLS expects an average of about 66,200 openings for service technicians and mechanics each year over the next decade. Poltawsky says the automotive program also aims to remove other barriers.
“We're wanting to figure out, ‘How do we get you a driver’s license?’ Because in auto and HVAC, you're going to make more an hour and you're going to have better opportunities with a driver's license,” Poltawsky said.
Back in the garage, about a dozen people watched a video about the master cylinder, a key component of a vehicle's braking system. Stephanie Sheffield was one of them. Sheffield used to work in the financial sector but now wants to pursue a different career path.
“I’m learning something new, number one, I enjoy what I’m learning, and what I’m doing,” Sheffield said. “They provide hands-on experience with different aspects of the vehicle.”
Sheffield is also pleased to know she could help fill the shortage.
“There is a void,” Sheffield said. "There is a need for mechanics and just people in the automotive industry, and being a female, that makes it even better because the automotive industry is primarily male.”
For Sheffield, the new career path is about more than fixing cars.
“I have the opportunity to help someone in need. Whether they’re on the side of the road, whether they come into a shop,” Sheffield said. “They don’t know what the problem is; they’re looking for me to diagnose that problem and fix it. That feels good. So, I’m looking forward to it. I really and truly am. And I can’t wait.”
In about two months, Sheffield will put her newfound skills to work by changing community members' tires and diagnosing brake problems, all while helping fill the void for trade workers.
