Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Technologies at The College of the Florida Keys

In Florida's automotive training landscape, similar programs range from $40,000 to over $76,000 in first-year earnings—though those higher figures come from aviation-focused Embry-Riddle programs serving a different market. For a traditional automotive associate's degree, comparable Florida programs suggest earnings around $58,000, which would represent strong performance for this field. The estimated $11,400 in debt sits well below both Florida's typical $15,000 and the national median, creating a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.20 that would mean manageable monthly payments.

Here's the practical challenge: these figures are estimates based on peer programs because the College of the Florida Keys graduates too few students in this program for the Department of Education to report actual outcomes. That small cohort size could reflect limited local demand for automotive technicians in the Keys' tourism-driven economy, or it might simply indicate the program's niche scale. Without knowing whether this program's graduates actually achieve those peer-program earnings—or find work in the local market at all—the comparison becomes less useful.

Before committing, your child should speak directly with the program about job placement rates and whether graduates typically stay in the Keys or relocate to mainland Florida markets. The debt picture looks manageable, but only if those estimated earnings materialize in reality.