runaway42

I've been a bike (and ski) mechanic for a little over one and a half years and I'm wondering if getting a certificate is worth it. I know it's not like getting a degree and wont get me a job on it's own, I just kinda want to elevate myself. This is definitely the career path I intend to go down and maybe eventually my own shop. Currently the certificate I'm most considering is the first part of the Professional Bicycle Mechanics Association certification "program". Do any techs have any experience with this certification or others? If so what was your experience with testing and after you completed it and received your certificate? And lastly, would you recommend it to others?

Iride01 

Might pull more weight with a manufacturer if you have a certificate and other education. For employment at a LBS, I've no idea.

dedhed

In the long run this one will make you way more money.

​​​​​​https://www.ase.com/

Hit Factor

I don't see where a certificate could hurt your career. You might learn something along the way. Might help with insurance premiums.

veganbikes

It is not a bad thing to have certainly and always looks better to a shop. Though your best learning is through working and learning on the job.

runaway42

that’s pretty much what I was thinking. I’m currently working under a tech who our employer sent to Barnett’s. Just really wondering if any working techs did the certification. I think I’m gonna do it regardless.

Korina

You might get more response from the Bicycle Mechanics forum. If it were me, I'd go for the certificate; it certainly won't hurt, and probably will help.

Russ Roth

Worked in a shop that sent a kid off to Barnett's, not certain why. Basically the kid learned everything they taught him well enough to get a certificate of some sort. Still came back without the sense God gave him and an inability to figure out the best way to fix something. But it gave him a leverage point for demanding better pay from the shop owner since there was no agreement to sending him which the owner had to pay. So it might get you better pay if you have one by establishing a base skill level.

unterhausen

Moved here from General Cycling

cbrstar

I think it can open doors in the future. Say 5 years from now you want to move to another city or state. Having that certificate + experience will definitely help your resume when applying to another shop.

Andrew R Stewart 

Do we know where the OP is? From what my coworker says England has a qualification program, not sure if the word "certificate" is the correct term.

Education outside of the usual hard knocks schools (bike shops and your coworkers) can be very beneficial on a number of reasons. One might be a shop's insurance rates although I suspect this is a minimal savings if any. Another and bigger (perhaps biggest in the short term) is the customer confidence in the shop's professionalism and skill sets. Having those pieces of paper posted on the wall next to the service counter is very common practice in many other industries (think of your Dr's examination rooms and all the copies of their medical docs {bad pun}) or the auto dealer tech writer/mechanic. Typically one's ability to do the work in an efficient and less damaging manor is enhanced with education and this should warrant more pay. But do remember that the shop owner likely didn't have access to such educational options back in their day and will sometimes think it's not worth more pay, or be able to even pay more even if they would like to. Having the owner on board is essential if this aspect is your goal.

There are a number of free but for your time tutorials available from Shimano, Trek (if you're a dealer) and other companies. Generally these are tied into purchasing discounts and not more pay. The various true go to a place and attend a course (Barnets, UBI as two US examples) can be pricy for both the course and travel/living cost during the sessions. Again having an owner who values this is a way to share the costs.

I have worked with very few who have attended this type of education but those who did generally thought well of their experiences independent of any pay benefits. I will make a comment about applying for a job after having attended a school. It will be somewhat discounted as the most important aspects of a shop wrench are their ability to listen, ask the right questions, mesh with other staff, represent the shop in a positive light, be reliable and presentable. These qualities are not typically taught bu a school but by one's upbringing. When I was that owner (1986-2000) two young men applied for a job. Both seemed to feel they were above the other job applicants I had interviewed and one even went so far as to complain to me during his interview about why his school certificate wasn't his ticket to the job. It was obvious to me that both would not make good employees and this is what being hired is all about, being a good employee.

Remember that the bike shop world is still a passion driven ownership one more often then not. Very few owners went into the business because they though they would make a bundle and many only survive because of one (or more) of these reasons: 1- They inherited the business, 2- they own the building/property, 3- they have outside money to live on (like a spouse who has the 401K and health ins.)

I know some of my reply is not what the OP was asking about but as a lifer in the LBS world this needs to be known by those who are thinking about long term choices. Andy

Mad Honk 

Just like Andy says certification does help a bit, but you must have a dedication and enthusiasm for the work. I have certifications in another discipline, and for me it was a nine year journey. The end result is that I am the world's only professionally certified golf Club maker/ Club fitter. I am ranked in the top twelve at what I do world wide and have quite a bit of status in the golf profession. My three walls of certifications and Clubmaker of the Year awards taken with me to Starbucks will get me a five dollar coffee. So yes certifications do count, but more in status and a bit more of credibility or even street cred. Monetarily it only matters if you can leverage it. As a golf professional I have the luxury of setting my own price rates which are relatively higher than the normal pro. But the certifications are what allow me to charge more for my services. So I would say that certifications do help, but continued certification and more of them will help you in the future, think like the automotive SAE certifications. HTH, Smiles, MH

runaway42

thank you! That was very insightful. I definitely want the certification more as a way to show how I take the profession seriously, this is not a “I have no other options” career for me like it is for some I’ve worked with. Thanks for giving me a some more inspiration to keep on keeping on

enjaku

My name is Eric and I’m current retired and working as a mechanic. I’m scheduled to go to UBI this February. I’m curious, about what percentage of working mechanics have a trad. school certificate? By that, I mean Barnetts, UBI, or some other similar course. I agree with most here that expertise comes from hands-on experience, but there must be some intrinsic value in an intensive learning environment.

Cheers,
eric

Tawraste666

I recently enquired about a course and spoke to the tutor on the phone.
I explained my level of competancy and asked if I would get time on the course to clear up and deepen my understanding of why some things can affect others, etc.
He then explained that this was not really the course direction, that the students follow the curriculum in a linear way then leading to the certification at the end, and would I like to book a place?
I thanked him, and ended the call, and then had several emails and calls over the next few weeks inviting me to book my place.

From this, and from experiences with other courses of a technical nature, I deduced that their business was about me paying for that certificate and little else, which would be great in terms of employment, insurance, and customers but would do nothing for my enquiring mind.

cxwrench

I've never done a 'normal' certification course like UBI. Trek sent me to their expert mechanics course in Waterloo, so I became more knowledgeable in their stuff and the Fox, Shimano, SRAM , and Bosch stuff that their bikes used. As others have posted I have seen numerous people that have gone to courses at UBI or whatever and they didn't have any mechanical inclination at all, so in their case I'd say it was worthless. If you go and take one of those courses and can immediately go to work and practice what you learned, that's great. If not, again...mostly worthless. Too much info for a 'normal' person to absorb and remember.

cpach

I did UBI before I ever worked professionally as a mechanic--though I was a reasonably strong home mechanic (and occasional volunteer mechanic) before. If you're a career mechanic it's probably worth it--given the number of times you'll be doing every given service, even relatively small gains in efficiency or knowledge can pay off over a full time, long term career, and it's likely you'll pick up at least some knowledge and habits that are useful. The PBMA program is probably a pretty efficient way to improve your hireability without the tuition of UBI or Barnett's, and I'd love for this to be somewhat standard in the industry.

I think UBI did a reasonably good job. If I were hiring a mechanic some out of shop education would factor into hiring/pay for me--a lot of mechanics spend their time doing things slightly wrong, or without a significant breadth of knowledge. If you don't do a lot of wheel building or suspension work, I found those classes genuinely helpful. Frame building course was super fun, but had no impact on my career aside to show how much of a nerd I am. I am enrolled to do their Fox class at the next available opportunity because, for some reason, I just haven't done much Fox fork service beyond basic lowers service, in spite of doing full rebuilds on a bunch of other brands. It helps that it's an hour drive from my house.

For me personally, it definitely helped me get hired for my first job and I was told effected my starting pay.

BTW, as a career bike mechanic who's had to learn to ski tech in the last couple years--that's a bonus in a lot of scenarios.

Dan Burkhart 

I know it was certainly worth it to me. I attended Barnett's 18 years ago at age 50. I was looking ahead to a career change as I did not see myself looking out of the windshield of a truck into my 70s like many of my contemporaries.
Since then, I operated a bike shop for a few years and worked in another one as a wrench, and I learned a lot from the mechanic I employed and the ones I worked along side at the other shop, but Barnett's gave me a great foundation to build on.
During the time I operated the shop, I and my head mechanic went to Colorado Springs to attend the STU (Sram Technical University) That was a 3 day course with a primary focus on suspension training but also delved into brakes and drive train. I had and have minimal interest in suspensions, so I told my mechanic to pay close attention in that class because he was the suspension guy. I still took a lot of worthwhile stuff away from that course.
This was about three years after Barnett's, but since it was in the same town, I dropped by to see John, and by golly, he remembered me, and we had a great visit.
Shimano used to put on one day clinics, and I attended those whenever I had the chance too. Well worth it every time. Now, they have an on line learning system called S Tech.

ClydeClydeson

Much of wrenching in a shop is making old rusty and worn out parts work together and I don't know how much of that is covered by the courses - I always assumed they were teaching how to work on the latest and most complicated stuff, not necessarily how to get an old Huffy to brake and shift acceptably. I don't know for sure though - that was just my impression.

I stopped working in shops about 16 or 17 years ago, but that was after hydraulics and suspension were the norm, and it still seemed like most repairs were completed through a combination of experience working on other old bikes, and ingenuity when you don't have the 'correct' part. It always seemed like the ratio of commuter bike cleanings and overhauls to hydraulic brake bleeds was about 50:1.

speedy25

I'll add my 2 cents on this subject.

Ive been in multiple trades over the years and of course each one has SOME sort of certification. They all claim you will get better pay, etc, but that never seems to pan out. Do people really look for certified craftsmen to make repairs? Well sometimes. 98% just dont care, and many of those are only looking for a cheap price. One group wanted me to pay an annual fee to keep my cert in good standing. That was the wackiest ploy. Yeah after a year I totally forgot what I learned and had to pay $59.95 to get my skills back?? Not hardly.
Over the years I have been the one who makes CORRECT repairs when the person with the certification botched the job. And then there was the story in a previous post about someone getting their cert but still not doing the job any better.
What really matters is your craftsmanship, but oddly only to the person who recognizes it. Nothing wrong with more learning, but dont expect much from it other than a bigger responsibility because you are supposed to be the expert now!

-SP

Kai Winters

Depends...
Many shop mechanics learn by "doing" and being supervised by experienced mechanics.
Are you going to work in a shop that deals with a lot of repairs, upgrades, etc. that require specialized knowledge, tools, etc.? If so, learning the specifics may be beneficial but most parts, shocks, etc. have differences when servicing and I doubt any training center can teach about all the different brand's service requirements.
You will likely always encounter something you have not dealt with in a class and have to figure out how to repair or replace...often YouTube and Google is your only friend.
A well balanced and thorough training course can be very beneficial especially if you are going to be in a shop that doesn't have skilled and experienced mechanics to learn from and lean on when necessary. But it is really a starting point and you will gain knowledge and experience by working on many varied bikes.
Perhaps keep a notebook on the oddities you encounter and how you solved the problem, etc.
If you are in an area that provides lots of off road riding and you see lots of "mountain" style bikes learning about shocks would be very beneficial. They can be a ***** to service and finding parts for old models is very hard. Some parts are just no longer available and it is always tough to tell a customer his fork can't be fixed and it will cost $400 plus to replace it.

rickpaulos

When I got insurance for our shop, the only topic mentioned was NO gasoline on the premises and no gas motors. So we must refuse to work on bikes with gas motor kits that get put on bicycles. Having any certification for mechanics is a non-issue.

veganbikes

I would refuse to work on gas motors on bikes anyway those things are a death trap usually and if not are pretty near close.

rydabent

As many have said, it cant hurt. But just because a bike shop displays the fact some of their mechanics have a certificate, it isnt a guarantee of good work. One shop in town returned my bike with grease all over the frame, bad adjustments, and loose bolts and nuts.

veganbikes

Most shops don't have the time to loosen peoples bolts and have no interest in it unless required for a repair and certainly aren't going to do extra unpaid work that could lead to bike issues. It is possible they may not have tightened them as it was not part of the purview of their work.