Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Future graduates of the Automotive Technician Program at Loring can look forward to an extra pad on their resume; the program was recently Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certified.
Aroostook Republican Photos/ Natalie Bazinet
Loring Job Corps Center’s Automotive Technichal Training Program was recently certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. Pictured are Career Technical Training Manager Mike Kinney, instructors Dan Estabrook, Dana Jones, and Loring Job Corps students Troy Day, Ronnie Dillard, John Goodwin, Rothana Ram, Nicholas White, Leonard Arcott III, Christopher Heroux Jr., Angel Pacheco Jr., Jeffrey Saucier, Inchon Spencer, Matthew Young and Cedric Palmer.
The Loring Job Corps center went through a formal application process with the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF), which is the educational arm of the ASE.
“It’s really a significant certification for a school to achieve for their automotive program,” said Loring Job Corps Career Technical Training Manager for Automotive Technologies Mike Kinney, “It’s going to afford our students more employment opportunities in that the employer may recognize the fact that our students have attended a NATEF approved school and therefore have been taught the necessary curriculum to succeed as entry level technicians.”
“We applied through NATEF roughly a year and a half ago,” said Kinney, “since then, we’ve been working on upgrading our program to meet their arduous requirements.”
“ASE certification isn’t just a stepping stone, it’s a goal,” said Job Corps student Leonard Arcott III of Presque Isle, “I’ll be NATEF certified and Job Corps certified when I graduate, but ASE certification is what you really need to make it in the Automotive Industry.”
“ASE certification was a major deal for the students,” said Kinney, “We kept them posted throughout the process of the certification initiative, and they were a big part of the certification process. The NATAF evaluators interviewed out students, observed them engaged in their training, and made sure that the students were achieving the outcomes that they were supposed to be taught by NATAF; they were pretty excited when they learned that we achieved the certification,” Kinney added.
The Loring Job Corps automotive shop underwent some significant changes to achieve ASE certification.
“We had to put in new lighting, install a lot of safety equipment like emergency stops and an exhaust evacuation system just to get the facility up to NATEF standards,” said Kinney.
Though the physical changes of the shop were significant and beneficial, the students and staff also underwent changes to their curriculum.
“Probably the most significant curriculum change would have to be the increased level of electronics/electricity training that’s been added,” said Kinney, “With today’s automobiles being so technologically advanced, the curriculum certainly lends itself toward addressing the issues of electronics and electricity as it relates to repairing automobiles.”
The Loring Job Corps Center is certified to teach electronics/electricity, brakes, steering and suspension, and engine performance. Students are encouraged to take all four subjects, but they are required to take electronics/electricity and one additional subject to graduate from the program.
Troy Day is one of the Job Corps students who’ve participated in all four programs.
“I had originally went to college, but the way they taught things was confusing for me, so I came to Job Corps and things are much more hands on,” Day said, “it made it easier for me to understand because they explain everything in detail instead of just throwing it at me like in college.”
Arcott has completed three of the four programs offered in the Automotive Technician Program, and recently took the ASE certification test on brakes.
“ASE certification isn’t based on how long you’ve been in the program,” Arcott explained, “it goes more on if the instructors think you’re ready. The students know that if instructors Dan Estabrook or Dana Jones didn’t ask them to take the test, then they need to improve in certain areas.”
Arcott took the test in November and is still waiting on his results, though he feels as if he did well on it.
“The test was difficult,” he said, “It was multiple choice, but you weren’t going to pass if you didn’t study.”
Arcott’s confidence in his results is based on the hard work he put in at Job Corps and the weeks and weeks he spent studying.
“When you apply to take the ASE test, they’ll send a study booklet based on the area of testing,” he said, “I read that booklet over and over.”
“My test was on brakes,” Arcott added, “Brakes are what I first came to Job Corps to do and I’ve been working with breaks for six years prior, but I looked at some of those questions and they were puzzling.”
Job Corps student Ronnie Dillard puts brakes back on a truck.
Leonard Arcott III prepares to take the transmission out of vehicle.
