By LESTER CHANG
In a tight job market where college graduates scramble to find jobs, Adrian Aldama feels lucky to be a student at the De Anza College Automotive Technology Center.
The center trains students to become certified automobile technicians and helps them land jobs with dealerships and car repair shops in Santa Clara Valley.
"It is a sound investment in my future," Aldama said recently. "Getting a job is almost a guarantee, as long as you are good at what you do. And the center is helping me to get there."
Aldama, who wants to design engines for car manufacturers, said tearing down engines and putting them back together again will help him to design new engines that run smoother and better.
Local businesses are impressed with the caliber of students who come out of the center and are ready to hire them, said Director Gary Lewis. In many cases, businessmen who attended the center years ago are hiring the students, he added.
The Automotive Technology Center, which opened 25 years ago, is offering 75 courses in this school year. With the help of tools, electronic equipment, books and videos, 14 full-time and part-time instructors teach students how to repair engines, transmissions, clutches, suspensions and air-conditioning and emission-control equipment.
Among other things, students learn how to do tuneups and align front wheels.
The courses are in high demand. About 400 students use the center weekly. In the 1995-96 school year, the center rejected 75 applicants for a program for students pursuing careers as technicians or in car-related jobs.
This year, 70 students will be certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, a Virginia-based group that includes car manufacturers and dealerships.
Many of the students will receive two-year degrees and will be hired for a job in the auto industry, Lewis said.
Those who stay in the field will be rewarded. Within three years of completing the classes, a student can earn between $50,000 and $80,000 a year, depending on job skills, Lewis said.
Those who work for four-year degrees and get into management positions will command high salaries, Lewis added.
Introductory classes deal with the makeup of a car and the working of equipment such as the transmission and emission-control device.
A second program provides more advanced classes. A third program is geared for people who want to pursue careers in the auto business. They should know how to repair a car properly when they are through with the course.
Evening classes also are offered to technicians who work in the day and can only find time to come to the center at night to upgrade their skills.
Under a special training program offered by Chrysler Corp., students learn how to work on computers and car systems found only on Chrysler vehicles. Students continue to study at the center and work at a dealership in Pleasanton owned by Chrysler.
Students also work on cars Chrysler donates and use a computer that is connected to repair computers at Chrysler's headquarters in Detroit.
The car makers contribute vehicles, tools and parts to the center and provide training sessions.
In the lab, students work on dust-free floors, surrounded by trophies from auto diagnostic contests.
Students are eager to learn and instructors are eager to teach, said Gary Toothman, who has taught car repair for more than 30 years in Michigan and California.
"The kick I get is seeing kids come in here not knowing much and leaving here familiar with cars . . . and some even starting their own businesses," Toothman said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 10, 1996
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.