Automotive Service Technician Apprenticeship Designed for Canadian Tire Apprentices

If you are currently employed at Canadian Tire, which boasts 487 stores across Canada and is the country’s biggest retailer, but want to advance your career, you should consider attending Centennial College’s Automotive Service Technician training. Sponsored by Canadian Tire, it is designed for those currently employed at the store who wish to become automotive service technicians responsible for maintaining and repairing cars, vans and pickup trucks by fixing engines, changing brakes, checking windshield wipers and fluid levels, and replacing mufflers, hoses, belts and plugs.

Aside from being employed by a Canadian Tire, applicants must have completed at minimum an Ontario Secondary School Diploma or GED or equivalent. If they are not employed at Canadian Tire, they may be selected through an interview process. For this modified apprenticeship, candidates may apply directly to Centennial College. As space in the undertaking is limited, acceptance is based on successful completion of all entry requirements. Successful applicants must obtain an employer and then register as a MAP apprentice with the Apprenticeship Branch of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Once accepted into the Automotive Service Technician Apprenticeship, students spend time at Centennial College’s Ashtonbee Campus (the largest transportation training centre in Ontario) and at their Canadian Tire employer. The structure sees students training on campus for 32 weeks and applying what they have learned on-the-job for four weeks. As such, the 32 weeks of the Automotive Service Technician Apprenticeship spent on campus are filled with a combination of theoretical lectures and practical application. Overall, this training is more in-depth and in-school sessions are longer than that of traditional apprenticeships. Students partake in five particular courses (Drivetrian Sytems, Electrical/Electronic & Emmission Systems, Engine Systems, Work Practices and Procedures, Suspension/Steering and Brake System) that are part of a provincial automotive curriculum and satisfy the knowledge necessary to become a licensed technician.

With over 190 Canadian Tire stores in Ontario, there is a high placement rate for candidates of the Automotive Service Technician Apprenticeship. As such, once they have finished their on-campus courses, students head into the workplace for an on-the-job experience. This is their chance to apply what they have learned during their in-school sessions, gain new knowledge and get to know the procedures of the company. During the employer sessions, students are compensated. It is worth noting that employers also benefit from the Automotive Service Technician Apprenticeship (or Automotive Service Technician Canadian Tire MAP 32 as it is officially known). “The benefits from an employer’s standpoint are that all the classroom training is complete,” says John Morin, a service manager at Canadian Tire of the Automotive Service Technician training at Centennial College. “We have a technician who is far more advanced in theory, more confident in his or her abilities and now just requires practical experience.”