ASE Chairman John Wolf Calls Industry to Action on Workforce Development

It is an extraordinary honor to serve as Chairman of the ASE Board of Directors. For more than five decades, ASE has stood as the trusted benchmark for professionalism, integrity, and technical excellence across the transportation service industry. Technicians, educators, shop owners, fleets, collision repair centers, OEMs, suppliers, and the motoring public all rely on ASE to uphold standards that ensure safe, high-quality repair. As your Board, we take seriously our responsibility to build upon that legacy, honoring our history while guiding ASE forward with clarity, purpose, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

At the core of ASE’s mission are people: the vehicle owner who depends on safe and accurate repair, and the service professional who delivers it. Our work begins and ends with people. That is why the Board continually brings together the collective intelligence of our diverse industry to strengthen ASE’s role in advancing public trust, elevating the technician profession, and supporting the individuals who keep motorists on the road.

I want to extend my sincere appreciation to the ASE staff, whose dedication and innovation continue to move this organization forward. Their work, from advancing certification and testing to creating new training pathways, ensures that ASE Certified professionals remain prepared for the rapidly evolving technologies reshaping vehicle service and repair. Their commitment is visible in every new program designed to support technicians, educators, and employers and to uphold the highest level of confidence for the motoring public.

One of those forward-looking initiatives is ASE Connects, a strategic investment in the long term health of our workforce. ASE Connects does not claim to solve the technician shortage on its own; that honestly is part of its strength. What ASE Connects does solve is the one barrier that has held our industry back for decades: fragmentation. For the first time, our industry has a unified national platform linking schools, shops, students, educators, and industry partners, providing the means to foster real coordination within local communities. With this shared infrastructure in place, we can finally shift from competing over technicians to developing them through grassroots involvement, shared commitment, and alignment. My call to action is clear: every dealership, independent shop, fleet, collision repair, educator, and industry partner must get involved. This is the work that strengthens our future.

We are also proud to celebrate the launch of ASE Validation for CarCareKiosk Repair Content, an initiative that brings ASE Certified technicians’ expertise directly to consumers. In an age where vehicle owners increasingly rely on digital content, ensuring they can access trustworthy, accurate repair information is more important than ever. Through ASE Validation, technicians contribute their knowledge to CarCareKiosk content, and ASE recognizes this verified information with the ASE Validated mark. This effort not only elevates consumer confidence, it showcases the professionalism of more than 220,000 active ASE Certified technicians whose skills protect the motoring public every day. I encourage every shop, educator, and partner to support this program by guiding customers, students, and aspiring technicians toward ASE-validated content they can trust.

Thank you to every technician, educator, dealer, shop owner, fleet operator, collision repair center owner, and industry leader who continues to invest more into our profession every single day. Your commitment is the foundation of ASE’s work. It inspires us to continually look ahead, challenge ourselves, and push for what our industry needs next. We are at our best when we rise together, when we combine our strengths, share our insights, and support the next generation with thoughtfulness and purpose.

Our industry moves forward when we move forward together. Join us in advancing Automotive Service Excellence by getting involved, contributing your voice, supporting the next generation, and upholding the standards that define our profession. The future of our industry is built by all of us, and it begins with your engagement.