Son will attend UTI in Avondale Sept 2011.Advice?

[enigmadsm]

I went to UTI, unfortunately unless you are totally oblivious to working on cars i didn't find it helpful.
i did grow up in a house that was brought up around cars, my dad constantly customizing his camaro, and doing the usual repairs such as brake repairs, transmission etc...

if i recall correctly its only 40k if you do the entire auto/diesel program. I would advise to do the diesel because its just a broader career field that you will be trained on, but if he did auto only its something like 27k.
I will say though, i had 2 friends who both did the auto/diesel and one stayed there for the BMW program, the other stayed for the Ford program. Both said that the manufacture specific training was amazing and they both currently work at dealerships.

Its extremely hard to find a decent job in Phoenix as an auto tech, the market is so saturated with previous UTI students that end up trying to stay in the area with their certificate and make a living. So being that there are so many people available work can be hard to find an not great pay. I know of a few places that wouldn't even hire if you went to UTI because the training was pretty basic and they didn't like the work ethic of a couple people they tried out who were graduates (i don't blame this part on the school, just those lazy individuals)

I don't mean to just rant and say everything was negative about the school, i DID learn some diagnostics and electrical schematics, which i always used to hate. But for example, i went through the transmission block, we rebuilt an old ass dodge tranny in a class room on a bench...Most places don't rebuild trannies anymore, they just get a rebuilt one and have a core charge that they use the old broken one as a credit.
Not once did we remove a tranmission from a car and install a new one. To me, that would be more important than doing something obsolete such as rebuilding one, when that practice isn't as common.

I learned how to turn brake rotors on a lathe and check for proper thicknesses and clearances, which was helpful, i learned how to do alignments and use an alignment rack as well as your everyday HVAC/air conditioning maintenance and recharging, which can be very useful it warm climate areas like phoenix.

the worst part IMO was the Hot Rod 3 part course, which i was extremely excited about...However, we all built small block chevy's, but you only have a couple of old worn out blocks to choose from, you don't get to test out your own head/cam combination to see if you picked something to make the most power, you get told what combo you will use. Which is fine and dandy, but this course is all about modifying, it should be your discretion (maybe this didn't bother many others, and maybe its different now, but it really irked me). part of the performance suspension tuning was done ON AN XBOX 360 PLAYING FORZA YESSS A VVVIIDDEEOOO GAMMEEE!!!!! and you would adjust the suspension settings and see if you could beat your previous lap time.

They have 2 dynos on site which you use in the hot rod course after you complete your build on your custom car (whatever your group gets to use outa the bunch) One day they allowed us to bring friends or family members cars and strap on the dyno just to get some numbers and have a little fun...Well being that igrew up around cars, i had a few friends with some pretty stout vehicles. One guy brought a 96 Single turbo Supra that generally dynoed around ~630whp, well UTI would not allow us to tighten down the straps as physically tight as we could, this is not only dangerous in a safety sense because the car is not secure on the dyno, but the car couldn't not get an accurate reading because it just spun the tires on the rollers.

If he does go to the school, as long as he applies himself and doesn't get caught up in the drama and DEFINETLY attends a manufacture course after the basic course, i think he willl be okay and get a fairly decent job. I don't wana sound like its all negative. i went there 3-4 years ago and still maintain contact with a few good friends from there, and they were from all part of the country.

I wouldn't live in a ~5 mile radius of the school...It seemed like all my friends that lived that close had loud partying neighbors or issue with auto theft/vandalism. There is tons of restraunts/eaterys/shops around the area, but i prefer either the Westgate area which is like 7 miles north up the freeway, or a little farther north around Arrowhead. But are pretty affordable, new, nice,and safe.
If he needs work, i would suggest him applying to be a lube tech or something similar at a dealership, smaller garage etc...that way he has his foot in the door in the same career field and gets a small amount of hands on while at school. Or he could do like I did and work as a restraunt server or at a bank (i worked at wells fargo).
The thing that pissed me off most, is that after I graduated...when i finally found a job. my current position at wells fargo payed more than what i would have gotten if i accepted a job as an automotive technician.

I also learned very quickly, don't make your hobby your career. If you love working on cars for fun, don't do it for a living because you'll hate doing anything on your personal car....otherwise sure its a fine career.

sorry its so drawn out, but thats what my experience was and my take from what i did...i feel like i pissed 20k away, and just wana make sure that people here both sides when they make that decision. And like i said, just cuz it didn't work for me 2 of my friends are doing good, so it worked for them! And its not like i didn't apply myself, i had a 4.0 GPA the entire time i was there.

[khuntrevor]

Originally Posted by Zippyman

I have a background in automotive parts and service, and I'd be a little concerned if a family member was investing $40k of borrowed money to obtain a job that pays $40-60k annually at best (and many techs out here would tell you the employment situation in PHX is currently pretty bleak). If the funding isn't borrowed, then it makes more sense to invest for a long-term career.

In better times, automotive service can be very lucrative, but most people in the area are skipping and delaying automotive services. Dealerships are only hiring experienced techs, and the compensation model used is one that pays nothing unless there is a customer's car in the service bay. Many independent/small shops in the valley are hanging on by a prayer.

If it were a family member making the choice, I'd advise them to get into one of the "affinity" programs, tied to a manufacturer, rather than just a "general" program. Dealers love to hire new techs that can claim to have "factory training", they just don't want to pay for it.

The "gold" standard for getting hired as a tech is "ASE" certification, which requires no formal training, just a computerized test. You can pick up the knowledge to pass that test at any local community college, and even with the training, you need two years of verifiable experience in the industry to be eligible to take the test.

Sensible, excellent advice.

[amosl]

The UTI school in Avondale does not have dorms, as mentioned in a post. I live about 2 mi from it. The school does partner with a realtor who does apt referrals, and of course, there are fees with that-I think to the apt and not the student. Craigslist, roomates.com and others can show rooms for rent in houses, apts, or shares. Sometimes that is the best way for someone to start out-renting a room-while they figure out where they like in the area. I've had UTI students as roomers at my house, and it has worked great for them, be it 3 months or 1 year....close, and they get to make friends, and learn about the area before committing to a long term apartment or area of town. It's a good school-I have a friend who teachers there in the diesel program. Of course, you'll read posts where someone thinks it's not a good school-depends on your experience there! I've got a young man renting end of March to July something or other, coming from CT, going to UTI. If your son wants to be the next roomer, I'll be glad to share photos of my house, the room etc. Pool-gotta have here in summer! Good luck to him in his school and move. [mod cut--- not recommended to post your email on the internet-- you can be contacted through Direct Message on this site]