Mechanic scholarships come from four directions: national foundations such as TechForce and mikeroweWORKS, industry groups including SEMA and the Collision Repair Education Foundation, money aimed at women entering the trade, and the schools and automakers themselves.
This page lists the programs we could verify from each one's own published figures, what they awarded in their latest documented cycle, the deadlines we could document for each, and how to build an application that competes.
National automotive scholarships
Scholarship money for mechanic school is not one big fund.
It is a set of programs with separate calendars, separate eligibility rules and separate award sizes.
The three national ones we can document from their own published figures are the TechForce Foundation, the mikeroweWORKS Work Ethic Scholarship and the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund.
The TechForce Foundation says it has awarded more than $6.5 million in scholarships to date, and that between January and June 2026 it made 866 awards from 8,967 applicants.
Its site lists three award lanes: Accelerate awards toward tuition, made monthly; Life Happens emergency cash awards, made weekly; and Strong Start awards toward moving and gear, made monthly.
Eligibility varies by program and school, so read each award's terms before you count on it.
The mikeroweWORKS Work Ethic Scholarship runs four rounds a year, with deadlines of April 30, June 30, August 30 and October 31 as the program's own page listed them in October 2026.
Applicants must be US citizens, high school graduates or seniors, and enrolled in — or planning to enroll in — an approved program of two years or less at an accredited school.
The application asks for a tuition bill and a signed S.W.E.A.T. pledge.
The approved-program list includes automotive and diesel technology.
The third national program is the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund.
In its 2025 cycle it offered awards of up to $5,000 to high school seniors and college students in the US and Canada, with applications taken through March 1, 2025, plus a $2,000 loan-forgiveness award for employees of SEMA-member companies.
The 2025 cycle is the latest we verified, and the current cycle's terms are not in our research — treat those dates as last cycle's and check the current one before you plan.
The deadlines and documented award money for each program, in one table.
| Program and who it serves | Documented award money | Deadlines as published |
|---|---|---|
| TechForce Foundation. Eligibility varies by program and school — read each award's terms before counting on one. | More than $6.5 million awarded to date. 866 awards January–June 2026. | Accelerate and Strong Start monthly. Life Happens weekly. |
| mikeroweWORKS Work Ethic Scholarship. US citizens, high school graduates or seniors, in approved programs of two years or less. | Amount set each round. Not stated on the page we read. | Apr 30, Jun 30, Aug 30, Oct 31 (as posted October 2026). |
| SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund. High school seniors and college students, US and Canada. | Up to $5,000 in the 2025 cycle. A $2,000 loan-forgiveness award besides. | 2025 cycle closed March 1, 2025. Confirm the current cycle. |
| Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF). High school seniors heading into a college collision program or collision job; current or incoming college collision students. | Over $9.1 million in scholarships and grants since 2009. | Not published on the page we read. |
| School awards (UTI example). UTI students — the school's own awards. | More than $27 million in scholarships and grants in 2025. | Set by the school — ask its aid office. |
Every figure in that table is the program's own published number as of the cycle named.
None of it is a promise of an award, and none of it substitutes for the current terms on the program's own site.
Confirm the current terms before you apply
Collision scholarships
The collision side has a dedicated fund of its own: the Collision Repair Education Foundation, CREF.
CREF offers scholarships and tool grants to high school seniors heading into a college collision program or a collision job, and to current or incoming college collision students.
Its site says it has awarded over $9.1 million in scholarships and grants since 2009.
The application mechanic is what makes CREF efficient.
Each applicant is considered for every award they qualify for, so one thorough application puts you in front of the fund's whole award list rather than a single prize.
Deadlines and individual award amounts were not published on the page we read, so the current cycle's dates need to come from CREF itself.
The tool grants deserve a second look from body-shop-bound students: CREF's list funds the bench as well as the classroom, and a grant that covers part of a set leaves tuition money — or borrowing room — for the program itself.
Our mechanic tools guide covers what technicians own once they are in the bay.
CREF also administers special awards — the military-connected 3M awards and the women-focused WIN scholarship.
They are the subject of the next section.
Scholarships for women
The women-focused award we can document from its source sits inside CREF: the Women's Industry Network (WIN) scholarship, for women pursuing collision repair careers.
CREF administers it alongside 3M awards for collision students who are serving or recently served in the military — or who have an immediate family member who has.
CREF says it considers applicants for every award they qualify for, and it administers the WIN program; the page we read showed no separate entry for WIN.
Confirm with CREF that its single application covers the WIN award as well as the general scholarships.
Our research confirmed those named programs and stopped there; it did not verify other women-in-automotive scholarship funds one by one.
Treat any longer list you find online as leads to check, not confirmed awards.
Your school's financial aid office and the industry groups in your segment — service, collision, or a specific brand — are the practical place to ask what is open in the current cycle.
School and OEM scholarships
The third source is the school itself.
UTI says it awarded more than $27 million in scholarships and grants in 2025 — institutional money awarded by one school in one year.
Whatever school you are considering, ask its financial aid office directly what institutional awards exist, what they require, and when their deadlines fall.
There are many schools to have that conversation with.
The ASE Education Foundation's site stats list 1,800 schools with ASE training programs and 118,000 students in ASE accredited programs, and accredited schools are listed on the foundation's Find-a-School page.
That list is a practical shortlist for scholarship and aid questions.
Automaker money reaches schools through sponsored programs as well.
UTI's catalog lists manufacturer-paid advanced training programs sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, Peterbilt, Porsche and Tesla, where the manufacturer sponsors tuition under terms of employment.
They are selective: to qualify, students must interview successfully and meet established GPA, attendance, driving-record, drug-testing, relocation and entrance-exam requirements, and MSAT applicants must have no felony convictions.
UTI also states plainly that these manufacturer-paid programs are not part of its accreditation and are not regulated or approved — worth reading before you weigh one against the accredited core program.
One more channel changes the bill after graduation rather than before it.
Under UTI's Tuition Reimbursement Incentive Program (TRIP), participating employers make all or part of a hired graduate's monthly student-loan payments.
UTI notes that TRIP does not reduce the total cost of tuition, and that not all employers participate.
UTI is the one school whose scholarship total we could verify in this research, and we could not verify published terms for other automakers' sponsorships.
Where a school or brand you are considering mentions sponsorship money, get the terms from its own catalog or financial aid office rather than from a recruiter's summary.
How to win one
Start from the calendar, because the calendar does the sorting. mikeroweWORKS reads applications in four rounds a year — April 30, June 30, August 30 and October 31.
TechForce makes its tuition and gear awards monthly and its emergency awards weekly.
SEMA's 2025 cycle closed on March 1, 2025 — the latest cycle we verified; we have not verified its current one.
CREF's dates were not on its page, so ask before you build anything.
Read eligibility literally before you invest an evening in an essay.
Mike Rowe's fund requires US citizenship, high school graduation or senior status, an approved program of two years or less at an accredited school, a tuition bill and a signed S.W.E.A.T. pledge.
TechForce's eligibility varies by program and school.
Missing one line item is the cheapest way to lose an award you otherwise fit.
Use one-application funds to full advantage.
CREF considers you for every award you qualify for, so a single careful application works CREF's whole award list.
Have the paperwork ready before a window opens: a current tuition bill, proof of acceptance or enrollment, and transcripts.
The tuition bill is a stated mikeroweWORKS requirement, and having the other pieces in the same folder speeds up every other form.
Make the essay specific.
A reader given generic enthusiasm has nothing to weigh.
Name the program you are entering, the shop classes and projects behind you, and the work you want to be doing once you are established.
Competitions give you something concrete to point to.
The SkillsUSA Championships, held each June with the National Leadership & Skills Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center, feature more than 7,000 state champions across 113 competitions.
A state or national placing is a hard credential for a scholarship application — and the preparation builds the same skills the money would fund.
Watch for strings on sponsored money.
Manufacturer-paid tuition arrives attached to employment terms, and UTI says its manufacturer-paid programs sit outside its accreditation.
Read the whole agreement — requirements, relocation, the employment commitment — not just the tuition line.
Stack the awards, then confirm the interaction.
Scholarships sit alongside school grants and employer pay-down programs such as TRIP.
How outside awards affect the rest of a package is each school's own calculation, so ask the financial aid office to run the numbers before you budget around a scholarship.
Reapply.
TechForce cycles weekly and monthly, and mikeroweWORKS opens four times a year — a miss in one round is not a permanent no. Keep the documents current and go again.
Map the deadlines first
mikeroweWORKS: April 30, June 30, August 30, October 31. TechForce: tuition and gear awards monthly, emergency awards weekly. SEMA and CREF: confirm the current cycle on their own sites before you plan.Clear the eligibility bar before writing
US citizenship, high school graduation or senior status and an approved two-year-or-less program for mikeroweWORKS; TechForce's terms vary by program and school.Prepare one document folder
A current tuition bill, acceptance or enrollment proof and transcripts — the tuition bill is a stated mikeroweWORKS requirement, and the rest speed up every other form.Write specific, then reapply
Name your program, your projects and any SkillsUSA placing — concrete detail is what a reviewer can weigh — and re-enter the next round if a window closes.
Career information, not financial, legal or tax advice. Every amount, deadline and eligibility rule above is the program's own published figure as of the cycle and dates named — confirm current terms with the program and your school's financial aid office before you rely on them.