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AVON PARK, Fla. – May 5, 2022 — South Florida State College’s (SFSC) Automotive Service Technology program at its DeSoto Campus in Arcadia, Fla. recently received continued accreditation to 2027 through the ASE Education Foundation.
The ASE Education Foundation is a non-profit organization that evaluates and accredits entry-level automotive technology education programs against standards developed by the automotive service industry.
Accreditation through ASE Education Foundation signifies that a program meets the highest industry standards and speaks to the quality of the programs’ faculty, curriculum, and overall operations. For local employers, it ensures a pool of highly trained entry-level technicians, whose education has been aligned with those industry standards.
According to the ASE Education Foundation, accreditation is a five-step process in evaluating a college’s automotive service program, its structure, processes, resources, materials, and mission.
“Reaccreditation with ASE Education Foundation takes place every five years,” said Phil Rizzo, SFSC professor of Automotive Service Technology at the DeSoto Campus. “At SFSC, my program advisory committee and I do a self-review first. We, then, send it to ASE Education Foundation and they review it. They choose an evaluator to do a one-day, onsite evaluation along with two evaluators from our community. In this instance, they came from DeSoto Auto Mall in Arcadia and North Side Shell in Arcadia.”
“Shop and student safety are most important in the evaluation,” Rizzo said. “They also look at curriculum and tasks. Ours are identical to the state framework. And they check to see that shop tools and equipment are current.”
SFSC offers an 18-month Automotive Service Technology Career Certificate and a 12-month Automotive Collision Technology Technician Career Certificate. For information about these programs, visit the SFSC website at southflorida.edu or call the Advising and Counseling Office at 863-784-7131. For information about the Automotive Service Technology program at the SFSC DeSoto Campus, contact Phil Rizzo at 863-784-7048 or phil.rizzo@southflorida.edu.
