Students Get a Look at Car Sales Business
As part of a semester-long program designed to help students explore their career options, juniors and seniors at Westlake High School listened Wednesday to a general manager of a car dealership discuss his job.
Ken Greene, whose two children attend Westlake High, talked to a basic math class about leadership, stress, conflict resolution and salary scales at Silver Star Motor Car Co. on Auto Mall Drive.
The point of Greene’s talk was to show the students, who are not necessarily bound for a four-year college education after high school, how a car dealership works and to expand their career options.
“A dealership is a microcosm of the business world,” said teacher Lynne Steensma, who came to the Conejo Valley Unified School District last fall after teaching at the California Youth Authority in Camarillo for 20 years.
“Everyone wants to be a veterinarian or a doctor because they are exposed to it,” said Karen Yu, who serves as a liaison between General Motors Corp. and school districts. “Car dealerships aren’t just about selling cars or fixing cars. It’s a multifaceted, complex industry.”
After a tour of the dealership last week and lectures by Silver Star’s department heads over the next month, the students will simulate their own business. They will come up with a name, figure out inventory needs, decide what percentage of commission to pay themselves and provide an oral report of their work at the end of the school year. Students who are appointed as department heads will shadow the dealership’s real employees at their jobs and report back to their peers.
“It’s pretty interesting,” said 16-year-old Floyd Grago. He said he thought working at a car dealership as a summer job would be better than working at a fast-food restaurant, although he isn’t sure he would want to sell Oldsmobiles or Cadillacs in the long term.
Hearing how a dealership works piqued the curiosity of 17-year-old Jaclyn Fuentes, who said she was toying with the idea of becoming a car saleswoman after Greene’s talk.
Though she is a math teacher, Steensma said she will be pleased by whatever useful knowledge her students gain from the school’s partnership with the dealership.
“People are so focused on college prep, advanced placement and honors classes,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to concentrate on the needs of all kinds of students. In here, the focus isn’t so much on academics. The kids have other talents, like personality and energy. Something like this just opens up a range of view.”
