Many high schools, vocational schools, private trade schools, and community colleges offer automotive body repair training programs.
Some employers hire persons without formal training as helpers.
They receive training on the job by starting with assisting in removing damaged parts and replacing new parts, and within 3 to 4 years will progress to skilled body repair. Most automotive body repairers work a standard 40-hour week. Repairers work indoors in body shops that are noisy, because of hammering against metal and the use of power tools. Body repairers often work in cramped positions, and much of their work is strenuous and dirty. Employment for automotive body repairers is expected to increase about as fast as the average through 2008.