ASE (http://www.ase.com) is the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, a non-profit organization established in 1972 by the automotive industry to improve the quality of vehicle repair and service through the voluntary testing and certification of automotive repair technicians.
NATEF (http://www.natef.org), the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation, is a separate non-profit foundation within the ASE organization. The primary mission of NATEF is to improve the quality of automotive technician training programs nationwide through voluntary certification. NATEF is responsible for the program evaluation process, and makes recommendations for ASE program certification based on the evaluation. The State Departments of Education in all 50 states support ASE certification of automotive programs.
