With automotive technicians in high demand, a new nonprofit organization aims to help meet that need through industry-driven education.

The Collision Engineering Career Alliance launched this month, bringing together partners from industry and education to help address the demand for highly skilled collision repair technicians nationwide.

The alliance grew out of a collision engineering program introduced in 2020 by the Enterprise Mobility Foundation and Ranken Technical College in St. Louis as a pilot at four schools. That program partnered with educational institutions and industry organizations such as Ford and Mitchell International in a hybrid apprenticeship model, with 87.5% of enrolled students completing the program and 100% of those securing a job before graduation.

Now the Collision Engineering Career Alliance is expanding from that model to become “an industry catalyst for addressing the ongoing technician shortage in collision repair,” the organization said in a news release.

“The launch of the Collision Engineering Career Alliance marks the next phase in the movement to develop highly skilled collision repair technicians,” Enterprise Mobility Foundation president Carolyn Kindle said. “Non-profit status will enable the Collision Engineering Career Alliance to remove barriers and create rewarding collision careers in more communities.

“Our continued support of this program reflects Enterprise Mobility’s commitment to strengthening our industry’s future.”

The organization said its name reflects its goal to “energize allies across the collision repair industry” to help build a workforce that is skilled, prepared for the future of vehicles and eager to build a lifelong career, something Enterprise Mobility CEO Chrissy Taylor called “critical to ensuring the future of mobility.”

Because that goal will require “a collective effort,” Taylor said, the alliance is seeking industry partners to join in creating “a pipeline of highly skilled, motivated and passionate collision repair professionals.”

In a news release, Enterprise Mobility said the new alliance will not change the experience for instructors and students of the current program, noting the two-year apprenticeship model and industry-guided curriculum, which gives students real-world experience before graduation, continues to be “integral to the program’s success.”

Collision Engineering is currently active at six schools across the country — Ranken Technical College in St. Louis; College of Lake County in Grayslake, Ill.; Contra Costa College in San Pablo, Calif.; Parkland College in Champaign, Ill.; Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Neb.; and Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, N.C. — with more schools expected to come on board in 2025.

More information about the Collision Engineering Career Alliance is available here.