Department website: https://www.cerritos.edu/autobody/

CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT

The General Automotive Collision Repair Damage Appraisal and Management Certificate prepares students for a career in automotive damage appraisal and management. Managers and appraisers are needed in dealerships, independent facilities and insurance companies. Encompassing the broad spectrum of vehicle design, manufacturing techniques, repair processes, refinish processes, estimating sequence and software along with shop management practices such as cycle time and throughput will be delivered through the course of study.

Program Student Learning Outcomes

• Students will learn how to identify various personality types including their own and demonstrate ways of adapting their responses to improve customer relations.
• Students will learn to organize their time at work and in their personal lives by tracking their time use and selecting alternative activities as they see fit to enhance their lives.
• Students will properly analyze structural damage to crashed vehicles and develop appropriate repair plans to correct structural realignment to factory specifications.
• Students will properly format and write hand-written estimates using information from Motor Crash guides or Mitchell Estimating guides and Procedure Pages.
• Students will use suspension design and geometry together with suspension theory to correctly identify damaged or bent components.
• Students will work as teams to create and operate a simulated collision repair shops including: market area, size, location, number of employees, production and office space, capacity, operating budget, and compensation for it’s’ employees.
• Students will analyze and determine a given shop’s production capacity and use process improvement methods to improve on the existing layout and production plan.
• Students will demonstrate how to properly create and format computerized damage estimates in each estimating software platform and develop appropriate supplements.
• Students will describe various elements and aspects of ethics in handling automotive insurance claims, including detecting fraudulent claims and how to prevent perpetuation of fraud in collision repair while providing appropriate compensation for collision repair procedures.
• Students will fairly negotiate simulated insurance claims involving automotive collisions.

Program Requirements

Course List

Code Number	Course Title	Units
Required Core
AB 151	Non-Structural Repair	4.5
AB 181	Non-Structural Damage Estimating	3.0
Required Electives
AB 182	Structural Damage Estimating	3.0
AB 183P	Computerized Damage Estimating - Pathways	1.5
AB 183U	Computerized Damage Estimating-Ultramate	1.5
AB 188	Introduction to Automotive Claims Handling	2.0
AB 281	Structural Damage Analysis for Estimators	1.0
AB 282	Steering, Suspension and Powertrain Analysis for Estimators	1.0
AB 283	Advanced-Frame Analysis for Estimators	1.0
Total Units		18.5