Community Partners Spotlight: Honda Explorers
Every week, Honda’s Training Center in Torrance, CA transforms into an interactive workshop that prepares local teens for automotive careers through hands-on technical training and professional development. It’s one of the many ways Honda Associates give back to the communities in which we live and work.
In 2010, Thomas Laymon, then assistant vice president of Honda Parts & Service, recognized an opportunity to use Honda Training Center equipment and vehicles for the education of youth in the Los Angeles community.
His vision led to the creation of Honda Explorers, a program spearheaded by Parts and Service associate Winston Morgan that prepares local teens for automotive careers through hands-on technical training and professional development.
For three hours every Thursday night (and some Saturdays) Honda’s Training Center transforms into an interactive workshop and safe haven where Explorers, as they are nicknamed, are nurtured to become the next generation of certified Express Service Technicians.
“At Honda Explorers, we have a hierarchy that mimics the roles and responsibilities of the real-world workplace,” said Morgan, Assistant Manager of Industry Education and Technical Training. “For every Explorer student in a leadership position, there is an Explorer adult who provides mentorship and instruction in their respective position.” The system effectively caters to the individual needs of Explorer students by connecting them with experienced professionals.
Students are prepared for success beyond the classroom with supplementary soft-skills development in the areas of ethics, problem-solving, decision-making, conflict resolution and public speaking. When not in the workshop, Explorers trade in their tools for team-building activities and group excursions to museums and race tracks.
This unique recipe of enrichment, training and recreation is preserved by the hard work of more than 30 volunteers that dedicate their time and expertise in helping the organization to thrive on a minimal budget.
Honda Explorers will celebrate its fifth anniversary in the coming months, a reminder of how far the organization has grown in such a short time. In nearly five years, the program has expanded its local outreach to nine schools in Torrance, Gardena, Hawthorne and Lawndale, Calif.
Recruitment for the next generation of Honda Explorers begins this month. Winston plans to introduce the program to local high schools, illustrating to students the array of professional opportunities at Honda.
About Honda
Honda established operations in America in 1959, and now employs more than 33,000 associates in its North America sales, R&D and manufacturing. It now operates 15 major manufacturing facilities in North America, producing a wide range of Honda and Acura automobiles, automobile engines and transmissions, Honda all-terrain vehicles, and power equipment products such as lawn mowers, mini-tillers and general purpose engines, using domestic and globally sourced parts.
This includes eight Honda auto plants in the North American region that have the capacity to produce 1.92 million automobiles each year. Honda operates major research and development centers in the U.S. that fully design, develop and engineer many of the products Honda produces in North America.
In 2013, more than 90 percent of the Honda and Acura automobiles sold in the U.S. were produced in North America.
Honda operates major research and development centers in the U.S. that fully design, develop and engineer many of the products Honda produces in North America.
