I hate tech school around mass for a few reasons .
First let me say I never went and I am a Honda master tech I picked it up as I went and I kicked it old school now partly the reason for not going to school is because I don't wanna do it forever

Why do kids that go to tech school come out not knowing any of the basics it's like they get taught how to rip apart a block and put it back together and how to tell if a head is warped but give them a LOF and tire rotation and it's like you just asked them to perform open heart surgery

I don't understand why kids who come out of tech school originally don't see that there is NO MONEY in the trade unless you go diesel

Maybe this is just in MA and my dealership gets the bottom of the barrel jokers that come out to play but in the last almost decade I've seen countless tech school kids FAIL at life in the shop

Now I've had buddies that graduated from Benjamin tech and UTI and know there **** however they had been working on cars before hand and all throughout so they knew a little bit about a little bit going in

Now all that being said I'm not praising myself for not going and doing as well as I do in this trade I would really like to know as far as a curriculum based tech school what the hell they teach kids because they definitely skip the basics and move on into the tough stuff because all these kids that go through are totally screwed unless they have a friend where they wanna work

Just for a little comparison I thought I'd share a little story with you so i can shed a light on this topic for you guys

Two kids got hired at the same time one kid was from a tech school and the other came from working over night at lowes and was a tinkerer

The kid who went to tech school failed to put a car on a lift correctly and dropped the car from about 6 ft high, failed to check the oil filter for the old gasket popped the new one on and started her up let all the oil **** out and heard a weird noise so he wrote it down and drove the car outside with no oil and nearly blew the motor, didn't know the location of the transmission from a rear differential asked me how much tranny fluid a crv takes I said 3.2 quarts and I walked by watching him measure out 3.2 quarts of tranny fluid and put it in the diff, countless other fu k ups before he got fired

The kid from lowes is still there, works in the bay across from me and hasn't had any big screw ups yet

I don't get it nor understand but the FUNNY thing is they come to work with brand new snap on tools from there school and don't know what half of them do or how to use them...good thing for these tech schools I mean at least they get nice shiny tools so they can play fake mechanic for a bit


I'm also not saying that they should come out master technicians of any vehicle make but seriously, they should have at least SOME skill leaving there

 

The one I'm going to in south Dakota actually teaches u what you are supposed to learn and has u work on actual broken stuff not training aids that have no problems

 

i agree...granted before i went into tech school i was wrenching on cars and worked in a dealer for the previous 2 years and all through school...but the school i went to was a joke...i had to throw everything away when i started in the shop...but im not even working on cars anymore lol...just detail them

 

my cousin left about a month ago to go to wyotech in Pennsylvania and he's doing the diesel program as well as the regular gas program or whatever it called

 

Tstc in Texas is a good school, my buddy attended the one in waco and got a job at dodge when he was stilll in school, once summer hit he wanted a job closer because he moved to Austin and walked into mini cooper/bmw and they hired him, the first place he went to, as far as I know he hasent screwed anything major up and he loves what he does. I will probably attend the same school and I went for a visit several months ago and they definatly teach the basics and everything else into detail.

 

I went and quit UTI. UTI was all theory, with no technical issues. i am a Ford/GM certified Diesel Tech, along with being aGM master TEch. I did it the hard way.

 

I think it has more to do with the brain of the individual than the training. I went to school to fix watches (smaller than cars but very similar). I grew up fixing things that broke and doing maintenance to make things last longer. Problem is, tech schools are given new product that has no issues. When I graduated and started working on 30+ year old watches it was a whole other animal. I've done okay, but some of the people that I went to school with have really struggled. These seam to be ones that came from a bit of money and simply bought something to replace the old/worn out/broken.

 

ive been working on cars since i was like 10. ill be graduating tech school in a month. i really dont know why i went i really havent learned much. everything i learned was in the shop with live cars.

 

Exactly my point you learn from working in the field not some strange station set up in a lab with a hypothetical pebble in a vacuum line real
Life never gonna happen bologna haha for lack of a better word I think it's a huge waste of money you learn more in the field

 

Alright I disagree with you guys. My junior year I decided I wanted to do the automotive program half day my whole senior year. I wasnt into cars really but thought itd be fun. Now all I do is work on my truck. We took apart engines,p put them back together, aligned cars all the time. Learned how to mount balance wheels and tires how tires are measured and the info on them. Learned what all steering and suspension parts were and how they worked. We did a brake unit which included full brake inspection on school vehicles. On car brake lathe off car brake lathe how to put pads on how to grease them and everything. I learned so much in the one year I was there that unless I want to be a mechanic I know about the general assembly of cars now. it helped me A LOT.

Maybe I just had a really good school and instructors...