Texas High School Students Compete for Scholarships and Prizes Awarded at the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills Competition in Houston

Market Wire, May, 2007

AAA Texas and Ford are giving high school students the keys to start their careers in the automotive repair industry as they team up to test students' automotive knowledge and technical skills. And for the first time since 1984, two females will compete in the Texas competition to become the state champions.

On Friday, May 18th, juniors and seniors from ten high schools across Texas will meet in Houston to challenge each other in the annual Ford/AAA Auto Skills Competition. Among them, there will be two females -- one representing Pearland High School and the other representing Klein High School. Each two-student team will strive to correctly diagnose and repair intentionally installed faults or "bugs" on identical vehicles. The winning team will need to repair every bug and then drive the vehicle across the finish line. In addition to receiving scholarships and other valuable prizes, the winners will represent the state in the National hands-on Finals at Ford Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan on June 26.

Every student qualified for the competition by completing online exams in February. The new format emulated professional technical certification and training programs such as the Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and automotive manufacturers, who are using Internet-based distance learning and assessment programs in lieu of off-site training and testing.

The Texas championship team will compete against students from fifty states in a written exam and another hands-on competition at the national finals. Each year many of the participants move on to promising careers in the automotive industry as a result of participation in the competition and the scholarships they win to some of the top technical schools in the country. This comes at a time of high demand for well-trained technicians. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the need for qualified technicians will grow by between nine and 17 percent through the year 2014, meaning current competitors will be well positioned to find employment upon completion of their training.

Both the national and the state-wide competitions are organized with the support of Ford personnel, local automotive instructors, and AAA's Approved Auto Repair program; a public service AAA performs to identify quality repair facilities throughout the country.

Note to editors: The state competition will be held at Reliant Stadium (One Reliant Park - 610 @ Kirby) in Houston beginning at 9 AM (central). For details on covering the event, call 713.284.6552.

Contest information for each state -- including dates, locations and local contacts -- is available at www.aaa.com/news .

Contact: Rose Rougeau 713.284.6552 E-mail: Email Contact