04/26/2008Automotive Master technician?
- HI, i am 18 and i am completing a level 3 btec national certificate in motor vehicle repair etc, My ambition is to become a master technician, how do you become a master tech and how long does it take, who trains you etc
appreciate any help
- Best Answer:Hi To answer your question , if your in the UK
You will need to have served a recognised apprenticeship and obtained at least 3rd year city & guilds
Also to move on you could go for an HND.
Take time and effort to get there but its worth it in the end.
- Answer:"Master Tech" is a designation you receive via testing against a standard of one form or another... Mine are ASE, and State Certifications.
It took me about 5 years to become Master Certified in Automotive, and about 2 more years to become Master Certified in Heavy Duty Truck. I learned the majority of my knowledge from hands on experience... I started wrenching at a young age, and made sure I knew the work of a specific category before testing in it. I was not interested in just "book smarts".
Your best bet is to find a trade school... and a job. Book smarts, and hands on.... this is the best route to take when starting in the field.
Stay away from dealerships if you can... anyone can become a specific vehicle tech... a real Master Tech learns, and knows multiple vehicles... not just one brand.
- Good Luck!
- Answer:As a former "Master Automotive Technician" certified through ASE, I can tell you it takes 3 or 4 years of classroom instruction in brakes & suspension, engines, transmissions (auto & man), auto electrical, tune-up (fixing "driveability" issues), auto air conditioning, and fuel injection. I went to school at Golden West College's Automotive Technologies program in So. California. GM sends many of their factory techs there. After all the book learning, then comes actual experience. Even if you have all the ASE certs there are available, without gobs of practical experience diagnosing problems (the really hard part) and then fixing them (demonstrating mechanical skills acceptable to a paying customer), you will probably starve if you are hired at Bob's Fix-It shop. It is far more difficult to diagnose & repair every different POS that rolls down the road.
Assuming you start and stay at a specific vehicle manufacturers dealership(s), for the first 6 to 24 months (depending on your efforts) you SHOULD be paired with a senior dealership technician whose role will be to instruct you specifically how a diagnosis is made, about the eccentricities of each model, where all of the nuts & bolts are for a given repair on a given model and model year along with about a million other things. During this time you should be drawing an hourly wage while the senior tech is allowed to claim the work done by you for HIS paycheck. Trust me, this is more than fair considering the enormous number of mistakes you are destined to make.
Personally, I used working at a dealership as an auto technician fixing Alfa-Romeo's, Maserati's and SAAB's to pay for college so I could do something I found more interesting on a larger scale. If I had used ANY of the brains God gave me, I would have used the time I spent in an automotive classroom to a much better use in a regular classroom and gotten my degree a decade before I eventually did.
When I started as a tech, people WANTED to know you. People WANTED to have a relationship of mutual respect with the man who took care of the most important machine in a given person's life.
Today, all anyone seems to want (besides something for nothing) is literally to screw the "next guy" who repairs their car to "make up" for a perceived (not actual) screwing they got from the "last guy". My personal recommendation, if you're not intending to open a shop (even a dealership?) of your own, use the time and money you would spend on tuition and tools (I spent $25K+ initially) and get a college degree instead. Design the car, don't fix it. I learned long ago the world no longer appreciates those who know the difference between one end of a screwdriver and the other.
Twist a wrench for a hobby. Since I left the car biz, I still have all of my tools. But, I've done only 4 minor repairs on my own vehicles in the last 10 years. I came to hate my tools.