Sally, first of all, let me thank you for your email...

Secondly, let me say that I feel your pain in more ways than you know...

Good automotive students are hard to come by nowadays, just like good
automotive technicians.

A lot of shops are struggling to find good techs to the point that they hire
people with little or no experience in hopes that they'll somehow get a good
one who learns fast and can perform.  More often than not, it doesn't
happen; the guys we hired like that when I was working at the Ford dealer
typically never got past the fast service aisle - brakes, belts, and hoses
were about as good as it got for those guys, because troubleshooting was
something the great majority of OJT guys can't understand without some
pretty serious one-on-one like I try to give my students.

I had trouble making my service manager at the Ford dealer understand that
you can't take a laid off police officer and teach him complex electronics
and driveability principles.

I try my dead level best to teach good work ethics, speed, accuracy, and all
the rest of it, but so many of my students have grown up so easy that it's
hard for them to get into the idea of hard work... and the work that happens
in a service bay, while it's rewarding, can be hard.  One of my more capable students works at a grocery store while he's making his way through my program and he made the remark a few days ago that he likes working at that store because he doesn't have to do much of anything.

If I get any really good students that want to relocate, I'll keep your name and shop on  file. 

Thanks again for your email and your kind words, and God bless you. 

Richard