Most students in post-secondary automotive, diesel/heavy truck and collision repair and refinishing career and technical education (CTE) programs believe the next step in their life will be into full-time technical careers, but high school students’ next moves are much more scattered, indicate responders to the 2024 and 2025 ASE Education Foundation’s Student Survey.
As addressed previously in our series, high school students nationwide offer a favorable review of their technical education but are uncertain about using their knowledge to enter a technical career.
Where more than 85% of post-secondary students in ASE’s 2024 and 2025 surveys reported their plans for next year to be continue their technical education or enter their field of study full time, fewer than 45% of high school students intend to do the same post graduation.
The discrepancy showcases a disconnect between education and industry at the high school level. May young people enjoy CTE courses but aren’t yet willing to continue that experience at the post-secondary or professional level.
This disconnect also begs the question, if high school students aren’t furthering their technical journey, where are they going?
ASE’s 2024 and 2025 surveys indicate there’s no clear answer.
When asked “What are your plans following graduation?” in 2024’s survey, 29% of students announced their intent to continue their technical education at the next level. That number is not insignificant, and was the largest response cohort. Among the other 71% of responders, responses varied wildly.
More education was the most common answer, with 16% of responders planning to continue their education at a community college or tech school in a different field and another 10% planning to attend a four-year college. Behind those groups, 14% said they wanted to work full-time in their technical field but nearly the same amount (12%) said they still didn’t know what they would do. Another 20% offered unique responses beyond those options, demonstrating the variation of their intent.
The 2025 study wasn’t much different.
Again, the largest segment of responders (26%) said they planned to continue their technical education, but that segment shrunk by more than the group intending to enter their CTE workforce grew (16%, up 2%). Nearly 20% still offered unique entries, with a combined 27% intending to move to a two-or four-year college and 12% still unsure.
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“While it’s encouraging to see that 45% of CTE students are sticking with our industry, and a significant number are going on to post-secondary programs, we still have work to do,” says ASE Education Foundation President Mike Coley. “The ASE Education Foundation remains committed to attracting and retaining more young automotive professionals from our ASE accredited programs.”
Yet ASE’s surveys also offer industry a sliver of downstream hope.
For high school students planning to attend a two- or four-year college, business and engineering (with a lean toward a mechanical curriculum) were the most popular intended fields of study in 2024 and 2025. Many students also noted an intent to study welding, HVAC, electrical and other trades, which furthers the thesis that high school technical programs are limited in scope.
“The wide range of choices available to those interested in a STEM career goes beyond automotive, truck and collision programs,” Coley says. “But it’s clear that the more industry support we have, the wider that pipeline of talent will be for everyone.”
Among students who are entering the workforce, auto and commercial truck dealerships are grabbing the lion’s share of most new technicians.
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Among post-secondary responders, 54% each year reported their intent to work for dealership. Independent shops earned 20% and 18% of responders, respectively, and were followed each year by fleet repair shops and collision repair or refinishing shops.
High school student responses still skewed toward dealers but only slightly, edging out independent shops 36% to 30% in 2024 and 37% to 27% in 2025. Behind those channels, collision repair and finishing shops finished third in both surveys.
Next up: Part VII of our special report, ‘Expanding awareness, scope of ASE accreditation could boost student-to-employee conversion rates’ is available for download above and will be published Tuesday.
