The decision to go to an automotive college and pursue higher education in this field is not an easy one. Not only does it require investing years of your own time and lots of your money (or even more, your parents’ money!), it means putting your future career on hold to chase what some people will call ‘just a piece of paper’.

Well, let me tell you this: a college education doesn’t just benefit you by giving you ‘just a piece of paper’. Like many other pursuits in life, the journey is more important than the destination. A lot of the benefits of an automotive college experience comes from the journey you take or the process that you go through and the automotive certificate that you earn at the end is a symbol of that entire journey.

Find friends and mentors

First of all, think of all the people that you will meet in college. When you’re a student in an automotive college, everyone around you is considered equal because you are all there for the same purpose: to learn.

Spending a few years seeing the same people every day and facing the same challenges helps people bond and create friendships that could last a lifetime! This isn’t just true in regards to your classmates, this is also true about the experienced automotive experts who will be teaching you.

After developing strong friendships with your lecturers and trainers, some of them might even become your mentors. Mentors are priceless, as they guide you through your experience and groom you to become an expert, even after you’ve graduated and established yourself in the automotive industry.

Become self-empowered

To put it into very plain language, automotive college education helps you to grow up. Being in college requires that you take a lot of responsibilities into your own hands. How you manage your time learning, how you prioritize your tasks, and how you study. If you’re a student who isn’t living with your own family, you’re also learning to be responsible in terms of where and how you live. When you’re in college, almost nobody is telling you what to do or how to behave!

Instead, the burden is on you to start behaving more like a responsible adult. It’s tough but very rewarding to assume so much responsibility, but once you get used to it you will start to feel more empowered and independent. With a stronger sense of self-confidence, you will be ready to face any challenge that life wants to throw at you!

Know yourself better

The most important thing to learn about in life is yourself. An automotive college experience is much more than just about the technical skills and knowledge that you will obtain, it’s also about the experiences that you’ll go through. Some of these experiences include the extra-curricular activities that you will spend your time doing. This could involve joining different clubs, picking up new hobbies, and even going through new social experiences.

In college, one of the most important things you will learn about is yourself. Your automotive college years are meant to be a time of experimentation and exploration. By going through this, you’ll learn what kind of people you get along with, what kind of hobbies make you happy, and you might even discover skills and talents you never knew you had!

All of these lessons about who you are as an individual can be lost if you jump straight into the automotive workforce instead of gaining a college education first, so rest assured that if you choose to go to college you’re not missing out on anything!

Become more attractive to automotive employers

When you successfully combine all of the benefits mentioned above, what happens is that you become much more attractive to potential employers in the automotive industry. Having completed a college education and earned an automotive college certification demonstrates to employers that you have gone through the process and are equipped with the basic knowledge and skills required.

Even better, it also suggests to employers that you have a certain degree of maturity, independence, and most importantly a strong willingness to learn; traits that are very important to employers when hiring new candidates. Remember this: employers don’t just look at your academic qualifications, they also pay very close attention to your attitude as well. The grades that you get, the clubs that you join, and the mentors that you have all reflect the attitude that you have as a worker.

Your attitude is the one thing that will set you apart from all other candidates.

So in conclusion, understand that when you sign up to join an automotive college it’s not just about the certification that you earn at the end. All of the experiences that you go through along the way benefit you in so many ways and contributes greatly to your future success in the automotive industry!

QUICK FACTS OF TOC AUTOMOTIVE COLLEGE

TOC offers various programmes and courses such as the Diploma in Automotive Technology, Diploma in Motorsport Technology, Diploma Kemahiran Malaysia, Superbike Technician Course, Master Technician Course, Automotive Customer Service, Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia (SKM) Level 2 & 3 and other automotive short courses. There will be a new intake —check it out here!

We are one of the best automotive colleges in Malaysia that provides you with the education pathway you need to turn your dream into reality! Our diploma and certificate programme is structured to fit the needs of the industry by providing hands-on experience and solid theoretical knowledge.  

If you’d like to know more about the automotive industry or if you’re still unsure whether it would be a good fit for you, don’t hesitate to have a chat with our automotive course counsellors, who would be happy to help you out!