I-CAR and its I-CAR Academy training curriculum won the SEMA Best New Product Award in the Collision Repair & Refinish category at the 2024 SEMA Show, the largest of the 18 showcase categories with over 300 submissions.
Additionally, the company’s recently launched RTS (Repairability Technical Support) App earned a runner-up finish in the same category for its role in delivering practical, on-demand technical information and resources to repair professionals.
“Receiving the SEMA Best New Product Award for I-CAR Academy is both exciting and validating,” said Dara Goroff, I-CAR VP panning & GM talent programming. “Our team worked tirelessly to create a program that builds foundational entry-level technician knowledge and skills, while also enhancing related onboarding and retention success in shops across the nation.”
The I-CAR Academy curriculum is designed for both schools and shops, equipping new technicians with relevant, consistent, high-quality training from Day One in their career journey, the company noted. Additionally available for shops is mentor programming and people and culture best practices that are critical to early technician success.
Since the initial launch of I-CAR Academy curriculum for schools in June 2024 and I-CAR Academy for shops in August 2024, the program has expanded to include 470 schools and shops across the country, with already more than 220,000 lesson completions to date.
Meanwhile, I-CAR’s RTS website, introduced in June 2014, serves collision repair professionals with resources like OEM Partial Part Replacement guidelines, OEM Calibration Requirements, technical news and industry best practices. In 2023, the RTS site received over 5 million visits and its technical support team responded directly to more than 3,000 Ask I-CAR inquiries.
