Survey Says: There’s Hope for Trade Education Yet

by Alana Quartuccio

These days, the industry can use all the good news it can get.

According to the results of a recent poll, the majority of US voters support the expansion of skilled trades at the high school level.

Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, the flagship program of The Smidt Foundation, commissioned the study which was conducted between December 9, 2025 and January 21, 2026 by NORC at the University of Chicago. The study polled more than 2,000 US voters, more than 2,000 parents of US public high school students and more than 1,700 US public high school students to evaluate attitudes toward skilled trade education. (See hftforschools.org/research/national-public-opinion-research/)

The big takeaways include:

•  90 percent say high schools and districts should prioritize funding for skilled trades classes.

•  94 percent agree it’s important for the government to fund AI-resilient career training.

•  79 percent say it’s a major problem that some high schools have reduced or eliminated skilled trades classes.

Massachusetts collision repair professionals know it can be a struggle to keep some of these programs going – though not without the occasional hopeful outcome. Late last year, the community came together to save the auto collision repair and refinishing program at Shawsheen Valley Regional Vocational Technical School (Billerica). (See grecopublishing.com/NEAR1225coverstory).

The program was on the chopping block due to low enrollment until Rachel James (Torque Financial Group) took to social media to encourage parents, students and industry professionals to contact the school in support of keeping the program. Dozens heard the call and spoke out on its behalf, resulting in the school’s committee voting favorably to keep collision repair and refinishing at Shawsheen.

But this was just one happy ending. Much more is needed to get the momentum going to get schools the support needed to keep trade education such as collision repair going.

Brandon Eckenrode, formerly of Collision Repair Education Foundation – CREF, sees a lot of promise in the conversations stemming from this recent survey.

“I’m encouraged,” says Eckenrode. “I’ve been in the industry for just under 25 years and I’ve never seen the conversation that’s happening right now. You’ll hear people call out for bringing back shop class, but to have presidents of AI companies tell the public that the next millionaires are going to be the people in the trades, that helps bring the message to the people. We call it influencing the influencers – the parents or the school counselors who will have an impact on students’ decisions about what career path to take. This is a good thing; the trades are finally getting a front seat and being showcased as viable options. It might not be the right choice for everyone, but it’s finally getting that acceptance.”

Currently, there are roughly 950 collision programs left in the country and that includes high school and post-secondary, according to Eckenrode. He noted the ongoing problem of instructors struggling to keep programs going on limited budgets; however, people in the industry tend to have an expectation that students who graduate out of the program will be ready and properly trained on day one.

“These instructors don’t always have the resources to provide that so that’s where the support CREF can provide through our industry partners comes in to help,” he notes. “It’s the industry support that can help these instructors.”

Eckenrode acknowledges the Shawsheen Valley Regional Vocational Technical School situation as a great example of people coming together to rally for the trades. “It showed the school’s administration that the program was worth the investment.”

In his hometown area of Chicago, he was involved with a similar situation where people rallied to try to get a community college to bring back a collision repair education program. The administration was open to the idea, provided they could meet with and hear from repair professionals, who not only would be most in support of the program but were also acutely aware of the hefty investments involved in maintaining it.

“We basically put out the bat signal to the industry,” says Eckenrode.”There was no collision school program in that market and this was an opportunity to bring a program back to the area. The program would serve as a feeder school to future employment to the shops and industry segments in the area.”

The call was heard and it was said by the school’s advisory board to be the largest school advisory board meeting it had ever seen. “And this was for a program that didn’t even exist yet,” Eckenrode spotlights.

The results bode well and the program made its return. It’s now in its second year and the school is opening a brand new building which will house the collision repair program and other technical ones.

Eckenrode sees opportunities in the conversation to work to make sure the industry is fully engaged with the existing programs that are out there.

“New programs opening up are great, but we have to put our best face forward when it comes to making sure existing programs have updated tools, equipment and supplies so they don’t come across as the ‘dark dingy body shop industry’ many people may perceive it to be. It’s on us, as an industry, to make sure we get involved and that doesn’t just mean with monetary donations. It means showing up to advisory board meetings and talking with administration so they are aware that businesses are interested in the future of these students and will hopefully employ them, but it’s going to take them to show up.”

He acknowledges that business has slowed down over the past year, but this is precisely why it’s particularly necessary to get involved with local school collision repair programs. “Many shops say they don’t have extra work for someone new right now, which I understand and respect but what is going to happen when they have too much business and they need someone?” he asks. “In my opinion, now is the time to get involved especially because things are slower at the shop so you can spend time at the school with the instructors. School counselors say kids are being told to pick their career path as early as junior high. It’s on us as an industry to make sure we are front and center with those students. They are likely to remember the body shop owner or the paint representative who visited the classroom. Other technical trades are hurting as well, and aging out. We need to be front facing so maybe we won’t just get leftover students who tried other programs and then came back. This really is an opportunity for us to take advantage of now.”

Want more? Check out the September 2026 issue of New England Automotive Report!