When you go to any comment section or forum online where the topic is ASE certification, you see some very interesting opinions from technicians. While most are positive, you do get some trolls.
Case in point:
“Nothing against anyone who is ASE certified, but I have been wrenching since 1985 and I learned the hard way — ‘I SCREWED IT UP, SO I FIXED IT’ — and now I’m the go-to guy at my dealership.”
It is great that you have wasted your dealership’s valuable labor inventory and reputation on your 25-year journey of knowledge. Any shop owner knows that when you screw something up, the technician is usually working for free to fix it. The time spent resolving a comeback or mistake is time that the shop owner could use to bring in more business and revenue.
How are you going to tell a customer that their car is not ready because a technician turned their vehicle into a “learning experience?” What is the person at the front counter going to say when a customer has to bring the vehicle back due to a faulty repair? “It is great you are back. Now the technician can learn even more about something they should’ve known in the first place. Thank you for your patronage.”
Trial-and-error tinkering is not a substitute for training, learning and certification. Achieving ASE certification requires intense training, study and “keeping up” with technology.
“I should come up with my own certification test and charge everyone for it like ASE does. How many customers even know what it is? Do they really shop around for an ASE-certified shop?”
I hate to break it to this guy, but ASE is a not-for-profit organization. The fee for each test covers the cost to proctor and write the tests. No one is getting rich off these exams.
All ASE test questions are written in workshops by experts in the subject matter for that particular field. The procedures for writing and validating test questions are typical of high-stakes, national credentialing programs, and are a key factor in the overall quality of the ASE program.
If you think you can construct the same type of test for free, you are crazy. If anyone tells you they have a similar test for less, chances are the product pales in comparison.
The industry’s greatest marketing awareness campaign is undertaken by the more than 400,000 people who have current certifications. Through their professionalism and commitment to the automotive repair industry, they have been evangelists for shops and technicians who believe in doing things the right way.
“I come from the generation of ‘we get it done, and we get it done right.’ With the right knowledge, service manuals and an occasional phone call to a friend, I handle any problem child that comes my way.”
Most top technicians do not have time to make phone calls to a friend to help them diagnose a vehicle. A phone call to either a buddy or helpline is not a substitute for inspection, diagnostics and educated analysis. ASE-certified technicians can make it through a test without calling a buddy. One of the best things you can do for your chosen profession is to obtain your ASE certification and keep it current. This commitment not only helps improve the image of individual technicians and shops, but of the industry as a whole.
