McKinney | September 2022

2022 HIGHER EDUCATION FOCUS

Then the CAREER BEGINS

After earning certications, graduates can take a variety of career paths.

Industry In the industry sector, graduates can work as a vendor, in parts sales, as a program recruiter, in tool sales, with the supply chain or as an instructor.

Tech

In the tech eld, graduates can work for a car dealer or a private shop; or become a at-rate technician, a parts sales manager, or a service advisor or manager.

Fleet

Fleet eld options include work as an automotive eet technician or manager; in the private or public industry; or as an instructor.

SOURCE: NORTH TEXAS AUTOMOBILE DEALERSCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

Fueling a shift The accreditation has created even more student interest in the program, Alba said. During the spring semester, the Automotive Technology Program at Collin College had about 123 new and continuing students enrolled in the program, according to data from the college. At the start of the new fall semester, the program had 189 new and continu- ing students, including general popu- lation college students as well as about 25 dual-credit high school students, Boyll said. Since the program began in 2020, enrollment has more than doubled, data shows. Jobs in automotive technology can- not be outsourced, Alba said, so stu- dents going into the program know they will have jobs available right at home. In addition, a career in the eld can be high-paying, he said. The career paths in automotive tech vary as well, Boyll said. “You can go any direction you want; you don’t have to turn a wrench,” Boyll said, adding that people can go into customer service with their certica- tions, automotive engineering or work- ing with automotive manufacturers and the various positions that can oer. “The sky’s the limit for somebody coming into this industry,” Alba said.

employees having been with The Body Shop Collision Center for more than 25 years, they continue to need new tal- ent. Jessica Rattan said Collin College has been helpful in that regard. Blake Sellers, co-owner of Honest-1 Auto Care in McKinney, has seen sim- ilar problems across the industry. He said he and his other co-owner have “managed to work [their] way through it,” but it continues to be a “standing problem” to nd reliable and experi- enced automotive technicians. Among nationwide stang shortages, Sellers proposes the industry may not seem desirable to younger people entering the workforce. “There simply aren’t as many people ... that are moving into more of a tech- nical trade career as there used to be,” he said. Cars have become more electrical than they were two decades ago, said Sean Boyll, professor of Automotive Technology at the college. This has led to one of the key challenges with nd- ing skilled workers in this eld, accord- ing to the CCC study. The development of electric vehicles has added a new element to repairing vehicles, but also fuel-burning cars now have electrical components to consider. “All the mechanical parts have got- ten to a point where the maintenance is fairly minimal,” Boyll said. The challenge associated with elec- tric vehicles not only adds an extra layer of training, but it also can require more time spent by technicians performing scans and calibrations, researching repair methods and even recharging electric vehicles, the CCC study stated.

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MCKINNEY EDITION • SEPTEMBER 2022