Toronto, Ontario – The non-profit organization, Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Education Foundation, has recently revised its accreditation standards for its 2022-2023 truck and collision repair training program outlines.
In 2022 and 2023, technical revision committees from across different levels of the automotive industry and education, recognized the growing number of high-voltage systems and EV adoption, and began to add related tasks, tools and equipment to featured standards.
Recent updates–which come in advance of an early 2024 review–focus on tasks, tools and equipment related to high-voltage systems used in electric and hybrid vehicles.
One such new revision concerns the ensured compliance with high-voltage lock-out/tag-out service procedures.
The foundation has also published a list of training resources that automotive educational programs can use when planning updates to the curriculums and training equipment needed when addressing EV technologies.
ASE accreditation standards are typically updated every three years with the goal of reflecting changes in technology, tools and service within the automotive industry across North America.
With these recent changes, Mike Coley, president of the ASE Education Foundation, noted that: “as more and more electric vehicles enter the marketplace, we feel it is imperative to ensure that students entering the workforce today are properly trained to work safely around these systems, even if they are not yet repairing the high voltage systems themselves.”
“Collaborating with individuals representing all facets of the transportation industry, as well as instructors and industry trainers, we are developing an evolving road map that programs can use to begin integrating EV technology into their current programs, including a list of training resources for both instructors and students,” he further explained.
With the future plan of reviewing standards again in 2024, Coley highlighted the ASE’s desire to add recommendations regarding tasks, tools and equipment similar to the ones developed for medium/heavy duty truck and collision repair.
For more information about the ASE’s accreditation standards, check out the link below:
