Universal Technical Institute(UTI) anybody?

[Funfettie]

Hay tuners,
So I have come to realize that cars are my future. Love building, tuning and learning about performance cars. And I realize that in my generation, there will always be performance car enthusiasts like us. So time to go to school and get some experience under my belt.

I went to a 4 year college for mechanical design engineering. made it only 2 years through, hated every minute of it.

UTI. looking past the commercials and all there advertising, they seems to be a pretty professional automotive school (that comes with a price, 34,XXX for tuition..) yuck.

So my question is, Anyone here been to UTI? Own a business and know anything about UTI grads? Just trying to find a way to work for a company like Full blown, WOT motorsports, MA performance ext.

Thank you!

 

[907dirtybird]

I have a buddy who went to UTI, he is doing pretty well for himself now, but has always said the UTI reference never really helped as much as his certifications did. Check out the GM ASEP/BSEP programs that are offered at 2 year colleges all over the country, they only charge you in-state tuition costs (no matter what state you reside) because GM picks up the difference in tuition for out-of-state students. I did the BSEP (auto body repair) program at College of Southern Idaho, it was well worth it, plus I got an associates in applied science along with my automotive certs.

 

[Black95TSIawd]

I believe Nate from TPG teaches a class there.

 

[99ECLIPSEGSXDSM]

I think that's WYOTECH. The closes UTI to TGP is 3-4 hours away by Philly. I was laid off and the company I worked for got aproved for TAA and schooling will be paid for so I've been tho king of UTI also

 

[Spector5]

To be completely honest. A school like UTI is what you make it. If you are going strictly to get into performance, then don't waste your money or time.

I am a graduate of the former Glendale heights, IL campus and can vouche that I absolutely enjoyed my time there. I did the basic automotive with FACT training(ford accelerated credential training). As someone that enjoys doing performance on the side or for a hobby, but wanted to get into the automotive industry period. It was the best choice, however, I don't think I would excelled or have been given the opportunitys I have had I just done the basic courses. Of you do go, I highly recommend some sort of manufacture training on top of just basic automotive.

With that said you have to have the mindset that you are going to be a automotive technician and not expect to end up in a high performance shop. It's designed around producing auto techs and not necessarily gear heads.

I would recommend wyotec if your more for performance or fabricating.

I could go on for hours on why you should or shouldn't, but it will come down to what you want out of the experience because honestly that is what it is.

You will more than likely hear from former students how garbage the school is and how worthless it is, but I can gaurantee you that is from their attitude and young and dumb outlook at things. Many kids come on with their high school mentality and sit in the back of the class raising all kinds of noise(slacking off) and then wonder why they either never learned anything or did well in the school.

To add, as for UTI being professional. They are very professional. They get a bad rap once again from young kids. I say kids because they are, just out of high school with the party and no maturity.

They certain requirements that most students just found so hard to realize because they have no real world or job experience. Such as it was like pulling teeth for them to tuck their shirt in, wear safety glasses, be on time(10mins early) and just shut up and listen to the instructors.

I guess with my matey experience tucking my shirt in wasn't such a hard task to handle .

However, of you can block out the dumbasses and stay focused on what you went for. The school in the moment and in the end is worth every penny.

 

[KGB Pilot125]

as a guy who over sees 5 repair shops I can tell you most guys coming out any technical schools are way behind compared to a master tech/apprentice program. Not only that but these tech schools fill students heads with BS like "you are a master tech now, dont accept anything below 30 bucks an hour." Not going to happen with out tons of tools and years of experience. We start out all apprentice positions at 9.50 an hour and after they prove they wont starve and pass a G1 ASE we move them to $12 flat rate and an additional bump of $2.00 if they have a scan tool. After this for every ASE on the way to master they get another $1 or $2 all they way to $26 per hour. 5 out of my 6 masters made over 90k last year. This year we are prototyping a step scale based on efficiency with an ability to top out at 30 per hour but you really have to have it together and run 125-135% efficient to do it.

Good luck on your search, really good techs are hard to find and it is a lot of work to make a living. good luck in whatever you decide