Driving Our Economy Forward: Mountain View Ford

A dependable mechanic is important when you own a vehicle.

Tonight, we look at how Chattanooga State and Mountain View Ford continue to drive our economy forward with the future of expert auto repair.

“We’d like to take you on a quick tour around our state-of-the-art service facilities to see.”

“In this industry it’s changing so quickly. And even though I’ve done this for over 35 years I don’t think any one year has been the same,” said Todd Landers, Service Director at Mountain View Ford and Lincoln.

“One thing that I do like is working with the young guys and girls. And we’ve got involved with Chattanooga State around 2014. And um, cuz this end industry we have a need for trained trade technicians.”

“I’ve graduated from Chatt State. I graduated in August. So one year program whereas uh most other places are going to be about 2 years. Here at Mountain View uh we get online training uh once we get to a certain point. Right now I’m on Quick Lane. So my next thing will be electrical. Um, I I believe I would be sent to Atlanta to do some training as well which is paid which is great,” said Casey Durham, Technician/Former Student at Mountain View Ford and Lincoln.

“We try to get the kids in the schools in the training. Um I was able to get the Ford Aces

program uh in Chattanooga State which allows the students (while they’re going to school), they’re taking Ford Certifications. Whereas I, when I hire somebody, the more for certifications you have the better I pay you. Currently I have eight students, seven of which graduated from Chattanooga State Automotive. One student that is currently full-time, and full-time in the summer. When school gets started back up we have cut his schedule back to accommodate his classes,” said Todd.

“It’s really nice kind of having the ability to work my like desired hours. And also be able to attend school. The amount that I’m kind of willing to go, um I can get my classes done. And then just head straight here and then this place has worked with my schedule a lot. And it’s made it really easy to kind of balance, you know. Having money coming in but also working towards like getting a full-time career,” said Parker Landers, student and valet at Mountain View Ford and Lincoln.

“You’re learning what you learning in class and then you get to put it in a real world situation. And it’s…  there’s no gaps in between. So he not like oh I’m going go to school I’mma graduate. I got this this piece of paper what I’m going to do with it. No it’s like you graduate, you have a job waiting on you. And you have a job and you’re still going to school. So they work both ways,” said Melissa Reed, Mobile Service Technician at Mountain View Ford and Lincoln.

“We kind of work with them in a non-traditional scheduling, uh,because their classes. We want them to be able to go to class, get a degree, but also work and be able to stand on their own financially. I just wanted to be known that we appreciate Chattanooga State working with us. Um you know the the men and women there, um, they kind of work with the dealerships in the area cause they know we need the trade. The, the actual train trade students just to show our appreciation to Chattanooga State,” said Todd.