This is great news for automotive-minded young people and their parents.”

Michael Coley | ASE Education Foundation president

Western Maricopa Education Center announced its automotive technology program recently received accreditation from Automotive Service Excellence, a professional certification group that performs the nation’s first and only accreditation process for automotive training programs.

ASE visited West-MEC’s Northwest Campus in Surprise over the course of two days to interview the automotive technology students and staff, examine the classroom and lab, and review evaluation documents required by ASE. The NWC automotive technology instructor, Brady Mitchell, worked for over a year to put these documents together for the ASE review.

The process is engineered to evaluate a program’s structure, processes, resources, materials and mission.

The NWC automotive technology program passed the accreditation process with flying colors. The program received a 5.0 in two standards, no scores below 4.0, and an average of 4.4 overall in 10 standards.

“This is great news for automotive-minded young people and their parents,” said Michael Coley, ASE Education Foundation president. “Because this program increases cooperation between local education and industry leaders, it gives added assurance that West-MEC’s graduates will be employable entry-level technicians.”

This is the highest grade the ASE evaluator has given to a high school in his 25-plus years of work and stated that this is the standard all schools should follow.

In Arizona, there are only five high school programs that have ASE Education Foundation accreditation, and West-MEC NWC is now part of this group of auto programs in the state. In Phoenix, there are only three high school auto programs that have ASE Accreditation, with West-MEC NWC being the only one in the West Valley.

The work put into the program by Mitchell and West-MEC will open the door to more opportunities in the future for students.