NOVUS Glass National Trainer Jay Bickford Retires After 28 Years, Leaving Deep Legacy in Technician Education

The third week of May 2024 brought an occasion for the glass industry to mark the retirement of one of its most dedicated training professionals. Jay Bickford, NOVUS Glass's national trainer within the company's human resources department, stepped down on May 10 after 28 years with the organization. His career began with franchisee ownership and rose through successive training and development roles.

Bickford started his NOVUS career at a franchise in Fort Smith, Arkansas, drawn to the industry by an interest in automotive work and entrepreneurship. Over 28 years, he advanced from franchisee to franchise support executive, director of franchise training, network strategic learning manager, and finally national trainer—a trajectory that gave him a hands-on franchisee perspective at every stage of his training work.

His applied philosophy was reflected in how he approached curriculum development: keeping the franchisee's daily reality front of mind when deciding what information technicians needed most. Bickford said he consistently prioritized his experience as a franchisee and small business owner when training new franchisees and their technicians—asking himself what information they required and what he would have wanted to know in their position.

Bickford's professional legacy included detailed revisions to multiple internal training manuals and the development of NOVUS's online training platform. He also played a key role in developing the Fix Network Apprenticeship Program, which had just produced its first graduate weeks earlier. The timing made his retirement a natural transition point: he had established the formal pathway for new technician entry that the industry had needed for years.

Fix Network operates NOVUS Glass along with other automotive service brands under its Canadian parent structure. The integration of NOVUS's training heritage with Fix Network's apprenticeship infrastructure represents a consolidation of institutional knowledge that will shape how the next generation of auto glass technicians learns the trade.

For glass shop operators, Bickford's career is a reminder that investing in the training function—whether through formal apprenticeships, in-house curriculum development, or sending technicians to trade events and certification programs—produces compounding returns in service quality, employee retention, and shop reputation.