The Southeast Community College Auto Collision Repair program maintains its reputation with state-of-the-art equipment and decades of teaching experience.
Three years ago, the ACR program installed some of the best automotive body equipment available. These additions include a virtual paint station, six painting booths and three paint prep stations.
According to Glenn Williams, Dean of the Transportation and Manufacturing Division of Southeast Community College, this new technology is some of the best anywhere in the country.
Williams claims that this is the case especially with the virtual paint system, where people with little to no painting experience could almost use it.
The painting booths used in the program are also some of the best money can buy, and there are booths of all varieties, including side draft and down draft systems.
A downdraft painting booth, according to www.toolusa.com, is a booth where the air circulation is drawn from the top of the structure then filtered out and released through the opposite corners of the room.
The website also says that a side draft system is similar but releases the air out of the sides of the booth at the floor level.
Williams said that the equipment is not the only thing that should draw students to the program. When joining the program students will be under the instruction of over 80 years of auto collision experience.
“I would put our instructors up against any other instructors in the industry,” Williams said of the three instructors who teach in the program.
Williams also said that the lack of faculty turnover provides stability for the no more than 21 students accepted into the program semi-annually.
With the reputation of the Southeast Community College Auto Collision program, those who graduate will have a number of job opportunities. In fact, Williams said, “Each graduate will have at least four job offers.”
If someone is interested in joining the 18-month program, Williams said, “don’t hesitate to apply.”
There is quite a long waiting list for the program, but Williams said it was noting but a “misconception.”
“Because they are told that there is a long waiting list,” Williams said, “many students apply for the program when they are sophomores in high school. Then by the time they are a senior, they have a change of interest.”