Fashion Mode

While automotive careers are as old as the 'horseless carriage', cars and trucks have experienced a constant technological improvement, mirrored in the supporting roles, from trucking dispatcher to mechanic. This requires both more training and specialized training. Over the course of decades of progress, computers have crept their way into vehicles and those, in turn, have become more mechanically complex and gained a great deal of automation and fail safes. Items that were once luxuries that people paid extra for are now included as a bare minimum, from air conditioning to seat belts.

Some examples of new, common features in cars include:

- Anti-lock brakes

- Power steering

- Automatic steering

- In chair heaters

- Satellite radios

- Rear view cameras

- GPS mapping systems

- Computerized engine monitoring

- Anti-puncture tires

- Airbags

That's not even an exhaustive list. Meanwhile car materials have changed from steel and chrome to lightweight fibreglass. Seats are upholstered in polyester velvets and vinyl composites. The radio of the olden days usually includes a music player, while the inside of the car includes roomy cup holders in the moulded plastic as a matter of course. The 'cigarette lighter' is now used to charge all sorts of consumer electronics, and cars glide through the night with a full complement of head lights and tail lights brightening the road. New innovations include completely self-steering cars, and link up systems that make the entire vehicle into an extension of the driver's smart phone. To keep up with this, would be car dealership workers are turning to extra education like a program at an auto sales college just to be able to confidently explain their product to consumers.

Meanwhile in support roles, the mechanic has further specialized into subcategories, from people who focus purely on the auto body to tire experts. Dispatchers have also had to adapt. Now they need more than a radio licence and must study hard in dispatcher courses to learn how to use computerized equipment. At the moment new entries into the electric car market appear every so often, with increasing longevity in the popular consciousness. Perhaps in future gas station attendants will also have to including plug in spots or switch entirely to providing power. Fill her up may need to become charge her up!

However, regardless of how the industry adapts, as long as there are personal vehicles there will be automotive careers. They might not even go he that name, as the wheel wrights and livery stables that supported old fashioned carriages didn't know they were going to be replaced, but just like many of the people working in those fields simply became new auto workers. Thus, as far as educational choices, automotive careers will remain a sound choice for postsecondary degrees.