Each year, thousands of young people register for automotive, diesel/heavy truck and collision repair and refinishing courses at high school and post-secondary career and technical education programs across the United States.
As part of its commitment to bridging the gap between student experiences and employer needs, the ASE Education Foundation regularly surveys these students to uncover the myriad reasons they are attracted to career and technical education (CTE), assess their satisfaction with their learning experiences and uncover their career intentions.
ASE began this process in 2019 with the most recent student survey results from this spring.
The ASE Education Foundation Student Survey is a vital resource for administrators and instructors nationwide. Taking the pulse of the classroom, the survey provides CTE educators key insights into curricula effectiveness and illuminates areas where students feel their educational experiences are inadequate.
Educators regularly use the survey results as directives for program improvements, using student feedback to evolve and modify programs to increase student interest and engagement and drive more young people toward CTE careers.
“The Student Surveys are designed to provide a deeper insight into how students rate various aspects of their CTE experience,” says Mike Coley, president of the ASE Education Foundation. “It’s just one of the many tools available to ASE accredited programs to help drive continuous improvement and identify best practices to reinforce positive student outcomes.
“One great example is identifying the value of actual work experience as part of the overall instructional package to improve recruitment and retention and maximize the value of the industry/ education partnership.”
[RELATED: ASE offering aftertreatment service tips in upcoming webinar]
But extracting value from the survey isn’t a benefit limited to educators. The ASE Education Foundation believes its Student Survey offers useful insights for industry that can and should be examined.
By seeing workplace expectations, goals and career aspirations of potential new employees so clearly established, ASE believes service providers can better recruit and integrate young technicians into their operations, ideally reducing turnover and destabilizing some of the misperceptions around the technician shortage.
“The student surveys also provide industry with student insights so those involved in Advisory Committees can offer advice and suggestions to instructors to help improve their programs,” Coley says.
In the following articles, Trucks, Parts, Service examines the results of the 2024 and 2025 ASE Education Foundation Student Surveys, showcasing what drives students into career and technical education programs, how they assess the curriculum and how it shapes their future career perceptions.
The information in this package will ideally enable educators and these industries (particularly heavy truck) to work in better partnership to improve student experiences, align education with the entry-level industry needs and reduce young technician turnover.
Next up: Part II of our special report, ‘Why students choose, or fall into, tech programs.’
