(snappy music) (air whooshing) (air whooshing) According to the nonprofit Tech Force Foundation that helps young people find a technical education and career, the auto industry will need over 470,000 auto techs between now and 2028.

Currently the industry is not on track to have those positions filled, but Ford Philanthropy is working to remedy the ongoing shortage.

I met with Ford Philanthropy education manager, Alex Shelton, outside of Ford, Michigan Central to find out more.

- This isn't just, Ford has a shortage of technicians.

This is the auto industry writ large.

- Yeah, it's for the entire automotive industry.

So Ford philanthropy and our Ford dealers across the country came together to work at how do we address this gap, knowing that we can't solve it ourselves, but how do we address it?

How do we start to make an effort towards it?

And so we started with a $1 million program.

It grew to $2 million, and this year it's a $4 million program that'll provide 800 scholarships at $5,000 a piece.

What would you say to a person who's on the fence about whether or not this is for them?

Well, I think one of our scholarship recipients from last year sums it up.

He responded and said, "I have gotten so much outta the scholarship, it's way more than I've ever could have expected from a scholarship."

It was the money, but he's also now employed.

There is a student who's able to use this money to get back and forth and drive 45 minutes each way.

There are students who are working jobs and have aspirations of becoming the F1 tech, the NASCAR tech.

People who have it in their sites to make a hundred thousand plus dollars in this career.

People who are combining that love for technology, combining that love for vehicles.

So if you're curious, it's an exciting career path that we'd love for you all to check out.

- Even if everything goes perfectly and all the scholarships are taken up, is there still going to be a shortage?

- Yeah, we know that this scholarship program won't fix it itself, but we do believe that this scholarship has power to change perceptions about the industry, to share opportunities and also to help students get to school, through school and into their careers.

- What is different about being an auto technician today than, you know, the auto mechanics of the past, - Technology's a part of the entire vehicle, right.

And it's only becoming more and more technological.

Vehicles are getting updates via the cloud now.

- Right.

It's happening automatically and so the tools that individuals use to diagnose problems are different.

And actually one student just got asked the question, if everything's so technologically focused now, can't you just pop out one chip and insert a new chip?

And her response was like, yeah, you could do that.

It can be that easy, but also because it's all connected, one wire, one sensor, one piece, could the entire vehicle.

- If there continues to be this shortage, how is that going to impact the industry at a larger scale?

Or how would they be impacted by that shortage of technicians - If that that need isn't addressed, that is a longer wait time, potentially, it could affect people throughout the industry, right.

We know that this is one piece of the puzzle, that there is a lot of ways that Ford and others are addressing this, whether through technical training programs, whether through scholarships, through mentorship.

- Do we have any information or insight into why we're currently experiencing a shortage?

- There's a lot of reasons why this is happening, right.

It's for some, there's a retirement.

There's people who are retiring faster than it's being refilled.

The skill set is changing.

There's been a push the last 10, 20 years about every student should go to a four year college.

And while that's an amazing pathway that Ford philanthropy also supports, that's not the pathway for everybody.