Whether it’s cars, trucks or airplanes, the things that make us move are an important part of the world we live in. Naturally, the people that keep them running are in high demand, and well-paid for it. The website Payscale keeps track of how much they, and other professionals are paid, so you can see the numbers for yourself.
If you want into the transportation industry, Centennial College’s School of Transportation programs are how you do it. They’re all taught at our Ashtonbee Campus, Canada’s largest transportation training hub, where you gain practical experience in our labs and garages, actually working on the vehicles you’re learning about. Not only that, but there’s a wide variety of ways you can enter the transportation industry, depending on what you want to specialize in. Here’s some careers you can get, what you’d make according to Payscale (in Canadian dollars), and how the College can help you get them.
If you want to work with cars, you could work in the following careers, for the following pay:
Automotive Service Manager - $59,441 per year
Automotive Technician - $24.41 per hour
Automotive Customer Service Consultant & Parts Technician - $18.23 per hour
Automotive Body Repairer - $22.37 per hour
A few ways to get into it:
Our automotive programs give you practical experience in our auto labs, where you’ll work on real engines, bodies, and full cars. How you use them to learn depends on the path you want to take.
If you want to learn about the different parts of the car, there’s our Automotive Parts and Service program, the first program of its kind in Canada to focus on both the parts themselves, and the supply chain that brings them to you. If you’re looking to fix a car’s body damage after an accident, our selection of auto body programs includes Auto Body Repair Techniques (a one-year certificate program) Auto Body Repairer (an apprenticeship program) and Auto Body Repair Technician (a two-year certificate program). On top of that, we have an extensive list of automotive apprenticeship programs, which give you even more hands-on experience with the automotive service industry by putting you in the very workplace you’ll be joining. We also have our Motive Power program for automobiles, which has the advantage of being designed for newbies, so you don’t need a lot of experience going in. You learn about the inner workings of a vehicle through theoretical and practical experience, and gain the first part of an apprenticeship, since the program meets the requirements for Level One and Two in-school apprenticeship training.
If you want to work with bikes:
Motorcycle Technician - $21.00 per hour
A few ways to get into it:
At Centennial College, you can learn everything about repairing a motorcycle in our Motorcycle and Powersports Product Repair Techniques program, where you’ll gain practical mechanical skills by working on actual motorcycles in our transportation labs at Ashtonbee Campus, before transitioning into the workforce with a paid field placement. But there’s more to the career area than just bikes, as the program also covers jet skis, ATVs, and even lawnmowers. They have engines too, and need repairing just as often. Best of all, because it’s such an unusual field, there’s a shortage of skilled people in the workforce.
If you want to work with aircraft:
Aviation Maintenance Technician - $49,440 per year
A few ways to get into it:
Our Aviation Technician programs will have you working on actual aircraft at our Ashtonbee Campus hangar. The labs are set up as if you’re going to work, so later, when you arrive on the job, you know your way around an aircraft. Our hangar is regulated by Transport Canada, so it operates just like a real aviation facility.
If you want to work with heavy equipment:
Heavy Equipment Technician - $30.49 per hour
Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanic - $28.22 per hour
A few ways to get into it:
The Truck and Coach or Heavy Equipment versions of our Motive Power program represent an alternative path you can take that sees you specializing in something a bit larger. You’re getting the same sort of hands-on knowledge found in our automotive programs, only focused on repairing larger vehicles such as buses, heavy-duty trucks and construction vehicles that use diesel engines and hydraulics. If you know how to fix these big rigs, you will always be in demand.
By Anthony Geremia