By Becky Burns Ask Jessica Howlin to describe her job as administrative program assistant with DG’s Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Training Program and she laughs. “It’s a lot of spreadsheets!” But then ask her what the best part of her job is and she gets serious: “It’s the customer relationships.” Whether she’s creating a spreadsheet for a new training class, following up on a payment to an instructor or attending a quarterly VDOT meeting in Virginia, everything Howlin does boils down to the managers, mechanics, instructors and DG Technologies co-workers she interacts with day-to-day as part of DG’s partnership with the State of Virginia. Broken up into nine districts, she explains, “VDOT has 250 technicians/mechanics and the training program is continuing education for them. So, we manage the training, certifications and industry memberships for them.” Ken Sturdevant had been heading DG Technologies’ VDOT Laptop Program for about a decade when a few years ago he secured a bid for DG to coordinate and provide support for the agency’s in-house mechanics training program. He hired Howlin, bringing her on board in the company’s Farmington Hills, Mich., headquarters in 2023, to make it all happen. With little information to go on from the previous company VDOT had contracted with for the work, Howlin needed to create her own roadmap for the program. That involved working closely with VDOT managers and asking a lot of questions. What resulted was an organized system for coordinating training class schedules statewide, creating monthly reports, maintaining VDOT’s training website and more. Her role also includes crosschecking with the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) to learn which individual VDOT mechanics are eligible for what tests and to register them when they are. “I enjoy all the people I work with and I enjoy all the successes they have,” she says. As the one who keeps track for VDOT of whether individual mechanics pass or fail their testing, it makes her happy to see when they receive their certifications and are eligible for promotions. Also responsible for teacher schedules and invoicing, Howlin looks at what training VDOT needs at any given time and then contacts the appropriate instructor from her go-to list for subjects like hydraulics, welding and shop safety, bringing them to Virginia from all over the country. Last July through winter, she says, one instructor from Arizona was at VDOT every other week training on topics like Ford gas engines, Navistar systems and diesel engines. For much of her first year at DG, everything Howlin did was by email, phone and Zoom. Since then, she has accompanied Sturdevant and Paul Hamburg, who coordinates DG’s VDOT Laptop Program, to two DG quarterly meetings to meet with VDOT managers. When she can’t be in Virginia for the quarterly meetings, she attends them on Zoom, but she prefers being on-site. “You get more out of having in-person conversations with people,” she says. “I like being able to see the people I talk to all the time on the phone. I think there is value added to seeing the customer face-to-face. It builds a good rapport.” For further information: Dearborn Group, Inc. General Contact: John McNelis Visit our website: www.dgtech.com Follow us!
Coordinating VDOT: What It Takes to Administer DG’s VDOT Training Program
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