Fixed Ops Journal - June 2021 - F11

"
" If we could do a better
job of telling the story of the
opportunities high school
students could have ... getting
high-paying jobs, well, that's
the car business. "
Group snapshot
A closer look at Faulkner
Automotive Group
Brands: 22
Rooftops: 28
Employees: 1,600
Technicians: 280
2021 expected revenue : $1.6 billion
2021 expected new sales: 20,463
2021 expected used sales: 19,230
2021 expected wholesale: 10,485
lion. Father Judge once had 4,000 students; it
has 800 now. Th e number of Catholic schools
nationwide is roughly half of what it was in
1960.
In Philadelphia, two Catholic schools are
HARRY FAULKNER, president,
Faulkner Automotive Group
problem, he is looking for help from an unusual
source: a buttoned-down, 70-year-old
inner-city all-boys Catholic high school 7.6
miles away called Father Judge.
In what may be a fi rst, Faulkner has committed
$1 million in cash, equipment and human
resources to Father Judge to help create an $8
million, 20,000-square-foot automotive technician
training school.
Vocational courses at Catholic high schools
are rare. National Catholic Education Association
spokeswoman
Margaret Kaplow told
Fixed Ops Journal the organization does not
know of another Catholic high school in the
country with an auto technician program.
Father Judge's campus looks and feels exactly
how you think a Catholic school should. Its
well-worn - but immaculate - tile fl oors
lead you down white-walled halls with thick
brown wooden doors and depictions of religious
fi gures placed strategically at eye level.
It's a serene campus, perhaps the last place
one might expect to see cars on lifts and hear
the sounds of students armed with pneumatic
air wrenches removing rusty muffl ers, repairing
leaking transmissions and replacing broMore
opportunities for students
" Th is is not about us, " Faulkner says in a
conference room in Brisson House, the former
residence of the school's priests. " It's
about the school trying to broaden students'
opportunities. It's about the school being a
signifi cant part of the community. When this
is up and running, there will be 20 students
graduating every year.
" As much as we would like to take every single
one, we won't have room for 20 new techs
every single year. "
Catholic high school enrollment peaked in
1960 at 5.2 million; today, it's less than 1.8 milken
axles. But if the school's plan is executed
on time, approximately 20 trained techs a year
will graduate with their Pennsylvania state
certifi cation starting in 2026.
Faulkner is one of the largest private contributors
to Father Judge's Career Pathways
Academy, where the techs will be trained. He
views the donation as a philanthropic one that
will help the school and community and create
a pipeline that fl ows new techs into the
Philadelphia area - even for his competitors.
closing this month because of declining enrollment.
To combat that, in 2017, Brian Patrick
King, Father's Judge's president, hired a
research fi rm to identify vocational careers
the school could off er to the roughly 20 percent
of its graduates who don't go to college,
join the military or take civil service jobs. Th e
school's fi rst two CTE - career and technical
education - programs, one for painters and
one for welders, have potential employers lining
up to hire the Father Judge graduates.
Faulkner believes the newest program will
be successful if his auto group and the school
can eff ectively convey to potential students
that a technician job in a dealership service
department doesn't mean a life sentence
shackled to the lube rack. Rather, it has a trajectory
with goals, promotions and raises -
along with a healthy paycheck.
" An incredible amount of our employees
have come up through fi xed operations and
have built meaningful careers in our organization, "
Faulkner says. " If we could do a better
job of telling the story of the opportunities
high school students could have ... getting
high-paying jobs, well, that's the car business. "
Th e plan for the school's technician program
is to broaden the education techs receive
while at the same time reducing from
four years to three the time it takes for a stusee
FAULKNER, Page 12
JUNE 2021 PAGE 11
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Fixed Ops Journal - June 2021

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