Ford Store Hires Teens To Educate Consumers About Vehicle Technology

A Ford dealership has found a way to both offer employment to teens and help consumers understand new technology. Quirk Ford in Quincy, Massachusetts is employing teens as a way to help consumers understand evolving vehicle technology.

The high school students working at Quincy Ford provide vehicle insight to customers 15 to 25 hours per week for $11 per hour. The dealer principal says these employees allows the store to free up valuable time for other staff, while helping consumers understand new technology. It also provides valuable experience to the teens, one of which told NBC news without the position at the dealership; he’d be bagging groceries. The teenagers will be able to either leverage their experience at the store onto a college resume or a career in retail automotive.

Daniel Quirk, the CEO of Quirk Auto, which has 15 rooftops told NBC News the teen employment program is, “Such a good situation for the students for the customers, for the parents, everyone. It was not a crazy idea, it was a genius idea.”

The teens working at Quirk Ford go through Ford’s certified training program and have a manager who monitors their grades. If the teens working at the dealership report slipping grades, their hours get reduced to make sure the job isn’t having a negative impact on their schoolwork.

Do you employ teenagers at your store? If you do, what kind of positions do they have? Would you hire teens to educate consumers about vehicles at your dealership? Finally, do you think product specialist positions in retail auto will gain more and more traction in the years to come?