08 Jun 2020 UACCM reactivates auto programs
The University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton is reactivating its collision repair and refinishing technology program due to increasing demand. The one-year technical certificate program, inactivated in 2018, will return to the UACCM campus in the fall semester.
The program is a comprehensive 30-credit-hour program that prepares students to enter the workforce with skills such as body and frame restoration, metal repair, refinishing processes and computerized estimates.
The program’s goal is to train students at applying techniques to a wide array of problems that vehicles endure on the road — knowledge that is designed to carry the student from the classroom and lab to a workshop.
With technical education that values hands-on experience, students will have the ability to earn several industry-recognized certifications while in the program. These certifications raise a student’s employability and skills, as employers seek technicians who can operate certain equipment.
The coursework includes foundational classes such as electrical and mechanical systems, auto body repair, as well as specific applications in color theory, materials and structural analysis.
The program will be housed in the Technology Building III on campus, where collision students had trained in the past. The college had maintained the machines and equipment and only needed a modest monetary investment to bring the program back.
While current and prospective students are invited to join collision repair and refinishing technology, the program is also available to regional concurrent high school students enrolled in the new UACCM Career Center.
Beginning in the fall, UACCM will operate the former River Valley Career Academy, a training program available to high schools that have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UACCM. The State Office of Skills Development pays tuition and fees for high school students enrolled at the UACCM Career Center in technical fields, including collision repair, welding, auto service technology, industrial mechanics and maintenance technology, emergency medical technician and nursing assisting.
