Indiana High School Students to Compete for Scholarships
and Prizes in 2008 Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition
Indianapolis, IN (Apr.
17, 2008) –
AAA and Ford are
giving high school students the keys to start their careers
in the automotive repair industry as they team up to test
students’ automotive knowledge and technical skills.
On Apr. 25, high school
students from around the state will meet in Indianapolis (Holiday
Inn Select – Airport, 2501 South High School Road)
to face off in the annual Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills
Competition. Each two-student team will race the clock to
correctly identify and fix intentionally installed “bugs” on
identical vehicles. After diagnosing and repairing every
bug, the winning teammates must drive their assigned vehicle
across the finish line, where their car will be inspected
for accuracy. The winning team members not only receive
scholarships and other valuable prizes, but also will
represent their state at the National Finals at Ford
Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, June 24.
Indiana’s state finals
will take place Apr. 25 from 9:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. at the
Holiday Inn Select – Airport in Indianapolis.
To qualify for the state
competition, each student was required to complete an online
exam administered in February. This marked the second year
that the qualifying exam was conducted online, enabling
8,076 students nationwide to compete for a spot in their
states’ auto skills competition. The new format follows the
professional technical certification and training programs
of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and automotive
manufacturers, who are using Internet-based distance
learning and assessment programs as alternatives to off-site
training and testing.
Indiana’s
first place team will
compete against students from 49 other states in a written
exam and another hands-on competition at the national
finals. “The competition is valuable because it energizes
young people about the great potential in the automotive
technician profession and encourages them to get the best
training possible,” said Greg Seiter, public affairs manager
for AAA Hoosier Motor Club. “As vehicular technology becomes
increasingly complex, we need assurance that the technicians
working on our cars and trucks know what they are doing. The
Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competition gives motivated
students a chance to obtain the latest technical training
and opportunities to pay for it.”
The competition enables many
of its participants to embark on promising careers in the
automotive repair industry with scholarships provided to the
nation’s top technical schools. With demand for well-trained
technicians remaining high – the U.S. Department of Labor
expects the need for qualified technicians to grow 14
percent through the year 2016, accounting for 110,000 new
jobs – once these students complete their training, they
should be qualified to find employment.
Both the national and the
state-wide competitions are organized with the support of
Ford personnel, local automotive instructors and AAA’s
Approved Auto Repair program, a public service AAA performs
to identify quality repair facilities throughout the
country.
Indiana’s 10 state finalist
teams include:
·
South Adams
High School (Berne, IN)
·
Hoosier Hills
Career Center (Bloomington, IN)
·
Tri Co Auto
Service Tech (Covington, IN)
·
Elkhart Area
Career Center – 2 teams (Elkhart, IN)
·
Central Nine
Career Center (Greenwood, IN)
·
Southridge
High School (Huntingburg, IN)
·
Ben Davis High
School (Indianapolis, IN)
·
Heritage Hills
High School (Lincoln City, IN)
·
Pike Central
High School (Petersburg, IN)
AAA
AAA Hoosier Motor Club is a fully tax-paying, not-for-profit
corporation that offers a wide range of services. The
405,000-member affiliate of the American Automobile
Association (AAA) works for the improvement of motoring and
traveling conditions within its 50-county Indiana territory.
AAA is the largest motoring and traveling organization in
the world with more than 51 million members.
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