Introduction
Why Certify?
Automotive technician training centers and their graduates gain great benefit from having achieved certification by the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF).
- Graduates from certified programs have better job placement opportunities.
- Graduates from certified programs can earn significantly higher wages.
- Graduates have been trained according to national skill standards.
- Most original equipment manufacturers will only donate materials to schools having achieved certification.
A growing number of states mandate that their high school automotive programs be NATEF-certified. Some preliminary discussion has taken place on rules allowing only NATEF-certified schools to be eligible for federal fundings.
The purpose of this site is to provide you with tools and guidance to achieve certification and maintain it so you can be in compliance should it become mandated and to immediately achieve certification's many benefits.
Employment Outlook
Motor vehicles have continued to become more sophisticated and computerized. Manufacturers want only the best trained technicians maintaining their customers' vehicles. This demand for higher quality service is coupled with a need for many more technicians.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of automotive service technicians and mechanics is expected to increase 10-20 percent through the year 2012, representing an increase of between 82,000 and 164,000 new jobs due to various factors including job transfer and retirements. This, coupled with demand for increasingly higher quality service, will create a spike in the need for industry-certified instructors and college programs.
