Norwalk, Calif. -- For 50 years Cerritos College has helped educate current and future automotive technicians, and in June work will begin on $15 million in improvements and upgrades to the automotive facilities, said Transportation Technologies Department Chairman Steve Berklite.
"The college and the Southland/Cerritos Center for Transportation Technologies (SCCTT) affiliates, with the support of the Cerritos College Foundation, are entering into a $4.8 million capital campaign for private support to help augment local bond funds provided for the $15 million expansion of the center," noted a recent press release touting a commitment of $500,000 to the effort by the Southland Motor Car Dealers Association.
"The proposed SCCTT will include a $9 million renovation of the existing three-acre auto complex and a new $6 million automotive partners building that will focus on management education for the auto industry," the release said.
The expansion, expected to be completed in 2009, will include a Hybrid and Alternative Fuels Training Center, three manufacturer-sponsored technician apprentice programs, and Northwood University's West Coast program center, offering a bachelor's degree in automotive management, Berklite said. The expansion will add about 12,000 square feet of space to the 58,000 square feet that the program now occupies, he said.
Approximately 1,000 college students attend mechanical and collision repair classes at the school each year, and another 100 high school students attend classes at Cerritos in cooperation with two local school districts and supported by a special grant, Berklite said.
The mechanical repair program has eight full-time instructors and 10 part-time instructors, while the collision repair program has two full-time instructors and 10 part-time instructors, he said.
Cerritos College hosts the local GM Automotive Service Educational Program (ASEP), Ford Automotive Student Service Educational Training (ASSET), and Chrysler College Automotive Program (CAP), which each start a class of 30 students a year who are training to become technicians at local dealerships, Berklite said. The students spend nine weeks at the school studying a repair segment and then follow that up with nine weeks working at their sponsoring dealership making repairs in the same segment, he said.
"The work experience really makes a big difference in how they pick up information," he said.
When the corporate program students are at the school, they spend two hours each morning in academic classes such as math and computers and five hours each afternoon in automotive classes or labs, Berklite said.
"It is a two-year program, and they receive 180 hours in automotive instruction alone," he said. "They really are full-time students. It's really a turnkey program; when they're all done, they go to work in a dealership and have earned an associate's degree and have received all of that manufacturers' embedded training."
Cerritos College also launched an Import Technician Training Program three years ago that follows the same model as the domestic corporate training programs but is not specific to just one make, Berklite said. "The program was created at the urging of the Southland Motor Car Dealers Association and the Greater Los Angeles Motor Car Dealers Association, and the students are proving to be in high demand," he said.
The import program is the only of the schools' programs that is not yet NATEF-certified, Berklite said, but only because it is so new and will be included the next time the school requalifies.
Berklite said that while the corporate program enrollment represents only about a third of the automotive program's total, it is critical because it results in significant donations of tools, training aids, and late-model vehicles for use by the school's automotive students.
"If you don't have some form of relationship with the manufacturers, you don't have an automotive program," he said. "It's a constant pipeline of donations. Without that, I don't know how you keep up." For instance, he said, the school has about 100 late-model vehicles to work on and receives five to six new vehicles each year from each of its corporate partners.
The flow of new vehicles and the latest factory diagnostic tools and software mean that students are more prepared to work in a modern shop environment when they graduate, Berklite said. "We don't teach history," he said. "We teach today's technology and tomorrow's."
In addition, Berklite said the school requires that all of the corporate classes be open to any technician or student, who can sign up for a nine-week segment of their choice. "We always have some general students in our corporate classes," he said.
Many attending the general automotive programs at the college are working in the industry already, Berklite said, but many others look for employment through the college's career center. He recommended that shops interested in hiring students or graduates contact the career center at 562-860-2451 x 2592 or him at x2933.
"With more than a 1,000 students a year passing through the programs, there is really a lot of opportunity for shops to find good employees," he said.
Berklite added that by working while taking classes, students are also able to retain more information. "There is just no replacement for having onsite experience," he said. "We give them the training but don't have the opportunity to provide the volume of experience that they can get while working in the industry."
In addition to the students who are attending classes to earn a certificate or associate's degree, Berklite said many working technicians also use the school to advance their education and move ahead in their careers. Basic and advanced electronics classes are popular with that group, he said, as are specialty service classes such as air-conditioning repair.
"Anyone can be a parts changer, but to be a diagnostician you need a lot of training and a lot of experience," Berklite said. "We offer a full gamut of electronics classes. To be successful today, you have to be able to use a DVOM effectively and trust what it's telling you."
Because Cerritos is a publicly funded college, the training is also affordable, Berklite said. "We're a community college and we are open entry, so we are open to anybody who wants to walk in for $20 per unit plus books. It's very economical."
In addition, for large shops or organizations, the school is also able to teach existing classes or specially designed programs at remote locations to meet the needs of the customer, Berklite said.
Two years ago, Cerritos also began offering a bachelor's degree in Automotive Marketing and Management in conjunction with Northwood University, Berklite said. Students complete the traditional two-year automotive technology program followed by a year of general business school classes at the college and a fourth year of business courses specific to the auto industry that were developed by Northwood University and are administered at Cerritos College, he said.
"It's only our second year, but we already have about 40 students on track in the program," Berklite said. "Most are graduates from corporate programs who want to be parts managers, service managers, or want to work for one of the manufacturers."
The degree option has also had the added benefit of being popular with parents of students that are entering the automotive service programs from high school, Berklite said. "The parents love the idea that they can go all the way through a four-year program and earn a degree," he said.