Long story short after 5 years of college to become a shop teacher I've realized I need to get ASE certified to teach autos in a decent program. I know I should have figured it out years ago that I should have become ASE certified so I can teach in a NATEF certified promgram (NATEF is ase's teaching "division" and NATEF = funding for shop progrmas), but I've just "discovered it" now. I could probably get a job teaching autos at a high school in a non certified promgram but a certified program has better job security and funding. I'm student teaching in a certified program and the autos program brings the vo tech center 75 grand a year. I figure If I don't get certified now it will be harder down the road.
From what I understand to become ASE certified you need to pass the tests and either 1 year in the field and an assocites degree in autos or 2 years in the field. I'm 3 classes and an intership away from an assocites in autos so I'm thinking I'll finish up my assocites, work for a year, and try and find a teaching job fall '09.
Any advice for getting into the field? I have a fair amount of exeriance working on 4x4's but almost 0 experiance on anything new/ front wheel drive/ modern electrical/ fuel injection. The autos program I went through in college sucked (didn't learn a thing, pretty much a place to use a hoist and free welder/ torches). I have a pretty decent set of tools/ tool box. It looks like i'll be moving to the Boulder CO area in May when I guraduatate (that's where the girl friend is starting a job next month). What's starting pay for an inexperianced tech? I'm guessing I'll probably start as oil change b!tch and move up from there? What type of shop would be the best to get experiance for teaching/ ase tests at? I'm thinking an general repair shop would probably be best.
Any other advice? This is my own "mess" but it will make finding a job near the girl friend a lot easier and getting real world experiance will help me teach my students better.
From what I understand to become ASE certified you need to pass the tests and either 1 year in the field and an assocites degree in autos or 2 years in the field. I'm 3 classes and an intership away from an assocites in autos so I'm thinking I'll finish up my assocites, work for a year, and try and find a teaching job fall '09.
Any advice for getting into the field? I have a fair amount of exeriance working on 4x4's but almost 0 experiance on anything new/ front wheel drive/ modern electrical/ fuel injection. The autos program I went through in college sucked (didn't learn a thing, pretty much a place to use a hoist and free welder/ torches). I have a pretty decent set of tools/ tool box. It looks like i'll be moving to the Boulder CO area in May when I guraduatate (that's where the girl friend is starting a job next month). What's starting pay for an inexperianced tech? I'm guessing I'll probably start as oil change b!tch and move up from there? What type of shop would be the best to get experiance for teaching/ ase tests at? I'm thinking an general repair shop would probably be best.
Any other advice? This is my own "mess" but it will make finding a job near the girl friend a lot easier and getting real world experiance will help me teach my students better.