General Vehicle Repair

What General Vehicle Repair Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to general vehicle repair and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for General Vehicle Repair Majors

General Vehicle Repair majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.

Skills for General Vehicle Repair Majors

When studying general vehicle repair, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Operation Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
• Quality Control Analysis - Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
• Repairing - Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.

Abilities for General Vehicle Repair Majors

As a general vehicle repair major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to General Vehicle Repair

Some careers associated with general vehicle repair require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to general vehicle repair have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	0.1%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	37.0%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	36.2%
Some College Courses	10.3%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	10.3%
Bachelor’s Degree	7.4%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	0.4%
Master’s Degree	0.5%

Online General Vehicle Repair Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	16	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	6	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to General Vehicle Repair

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to general vehicle repair.

Major	Number of Grads
Automobile/Automotive Mechanics Technology/Technician	37,616
Diesel Mechanics Technology/Technician	9,296
Airframe Mechanics & Aircraft Maintenance Technology/Technician	7,121
Autobody/Collision & Repair Technology/Technician	4,783
Aircraft Powerplant Technology/Technician	2,964
Medium/Heavy Vehicle & Truck Technology/Technician	2,030
Motorcycle Maintenance & Repair Technology/Technician	1,146
Marine Maintenance/Fitter & Ship Repair Technology/Technician	892
Avionics Maintenance Technology/Technician	735
High Performance & Custom Engine Technician/Mechanic	435
Small Engine Mechanics & Repair Technology/Technician	172
Other Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Technologies	148
Alternative Fuel Vehicle Technology/Technician	143
Engine Machinist	91
Recreation Vehicle (RV) Service Technician	43
Bicycle Mechanics & Repair Technology/Technician	16

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Airman 1st Class Nigel Sandridge under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.