Toronto, Ontario — August 2, 2019 – The Automotive Service Excellence Foundation (ASE) has just announced they plan to create an entry-level collision repair school accreditation program for young students entering the trade.
ASE is a non-profit certification group that works in both Canada and the U.S to provide professional certification to professionals in auto repair facilities. With a focus on innovation and forward-thinking, ASE’s goal for their program is to alleviate some of the financial burden that comes with accrediting vocational programs that train young auto techs.
“The new accreditation levels allow programs to more effectively use the limited number of hours available for instruction,” stated ASE’s predecessor, NATEF. “Secondary programs will now be able to teach across all systems to help better prepare students to maintain today’s vehicles. Post-secondary programs will have the ability to provide the complete spectrum of tasks and hours to allow for more in-depth training.”
The announcement came at the Collision Industry Conference when Gene Lopez from Seidner’s Collision Centers remarked that technicians were only doing “light maintenance repair,” and NATEF had created a separate accreditation program for those skills, splitting the program into“Maintenance and Light Repair,” “Auto Service Technology” and “Master Auto Service Technology.”
ASE hopes that with their new program, techs can receive more foundational knowledge first.
“The industry mix of work has changed,” President of NATEF Trish Serratore stated in 2012 when the idea for the initiative first began.
“Employers are seeing more maintenance-related services in their shops The new standards address these needs and provide more flexibility for automotive training programs nationwide.”
According to Lopez, ASE’s accreditation task list covers 377 tasks, he hopes to shrink this list to just 161 tasks for the entry-level program.
“It would be a heck of a lot easier!” stated committee member Kyle Holt.
The estimated cost for a base-level accreditation (with 377 tasks) currently sits at around $1,500.00 with a renewal fee of $1,250.00
For more information on ASE and their progress on creating an entry-level program, visit aseeducationfoundation.org
