Metro Community College To Launch Smartphone Repair Academy

Jason DeWater is looking to expand his iFixOmaha electronics repair business outside of the Omaha metropolitan area.

But it did not have a staff of employees capable of doing it. Plus, he says, it takes months to train an employee. And there is no guarantee that the employee is a qualified employee.

"This is a very young industry," DeWater said. “Until now there has been no industry standard certification. … That meant we had to do everything at home.

But in 2019, the national trade association CTIA created the Wireless Industry Service Excellence Certification Program to train people to provide high-quality, predictable phone repairs. With that in mind, DeWater, Metropolitan Community College, and CTIA have partnered to launch the Mobile Repair Academy. The first wave of students will begin the program at the university's Express Digital Library on the Fort Omaha campus in March.

Officials say the recovery academy is a first for educational institutions. Beverly Lahlum Taylor, director of Digital Express, said that CTIA offers a similar training program on the East Coast.

“It's great to be the first in the country to offer this in educational institutions,” he said.

Gary Girard, Metro's vice president of community education and workforce, said the groups would be limited to 15 students. The program fee per student is $1,500, but scholarships may be available for eligible students.

Students go through a five-day camp. They will be trained to repair smartphones and learn how to make these devices. At the end of boot camp, students will be assigned to repair broken cell phones.

Upon successful completion of the boot camp, the student will earn two WISE certificates and proceed to an eight-week internship.

Girard mentions the internship component as an important part of the program. He said the internship would provide experience for students to interact with customers in addition to repairing equipment.

"It's not just about fixing this (device), it's about developing this concept of customer service," he said.

The academy will provide assistance to area residents with broken phones. The order invoices this customer for the cost of the parts, without adding labor or other costs.

Girard and DeWater downplay the idea that such a model puts universities in competition with equipment repair companies like iFixOmaha.

"Our goal is not to offer competition, but rather to develop a skilled workforce to meet the needs of this area of recovery," Girard said.

DeWater says the academy will allow his company to expand its repair capabilities to handle more high-end repairs.

"What that allowed us to do was really focus on our core values as a company, which is to train the best technicians we can, who were then able to open these amazing repair centers where we could do just about anything we could." fixing what can go wrong with smartphones, laptops (and) tablets," he said. "This is a dream come true for iFixOmaha."

DeWater says that iFixOmaha plans to hire only people who have completed the program at Metro. He says the starting salary for a new iFixOmaha technician is $18 an hour and the position comes with benefits.