James Lett, technical knowledgeable at Autodata, asks how the trade can encourage extra individuals to enter the sector.
As Nationwide Apprenticeship Week comes round once more, we recognise that the UK’s commerce trade continues to be going through a labour scarcity problem. That is very true within the automotive sector, the place it’s predicted we’ll expertise a shortfall of 160,000 staff by 2031 on account of an ageing inhabitants, a discount in migration and many individuals leaving the career all collectively.
This scarcity of bold individuals doing exhausting work with their arms begs the query: How can we encourage extra individuals to enter the sector? And preserve them there?
That is very true for the youthful era. We ought to be inspiring them to discover alternatives to tackle vocational work, altering the present narrative {that a} profitable profession solely comes from attending college and dealing at a desk.
Encouraging apprenticeship schemes
As we all know, jobs throughout the expert trades play an important position in sustaining a well-functioning society, and the apprenticeship schemes into them slim socioeconomic disparities and gasoline social mobility.
There is a slight false impression that apprenticeship schemes are low paying. Nonetheless, a current examine revealed that the common wage for an apprentice technician’s wage stands at upwards of £26,000 per 12 months, with the potential to earn over £100,000 as soon as accomplished. That shouldn’t be sniffed at.
The implausible information is that efforts to draw apprentices to the automotive trade have intensified, resulting in a major enhance in job postings. Promoting for apprentices has surged since 2020, with job postings for all automotive occupations reaching file highs in January 2023, based on the IMI.
Furthermore, The Unbiased Storage Affiliation (IGA) has urged Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to introduce new funding for apprenticeships in his Spring Funds, as numbers have plummeted because the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in 2017, leading to a 39% lower in new Degree 2 & 3 Mild Automobile apprenticeship registrations.
Sure, college levels act as a pathway to many careers. However, they aren’t the one possibility. It is important, particularly for younger individuals, to contemplate all their choices earlier than figuring out their future profession paths, and the trade must be encouraging that.
A brand new sort of automotive technician job
With rising demand for EV repairs and duties involving software program updates and automobile upgrades, the way in which we method work within the automotive subject is evolving. To protect the way forward for the trade, we have to recognise that these developments could make this job extra attractive for tech-savvy individuals wanting a job that doesn’t contain a desk.
Being an automotive technician is not solely about tightening bolts (though it will by no means cease being vital!). Automation and robotics are enhancing effectivity, security, and precision within the trade. These transformations want a contemporary set of abilities—ones that mix technical experience with artistic problem-solving.
Getting younger individuals enthusiastic about these developments and alternatives is the important thing to inspiring a brand new era of execs within the automotive area. That is particularly vital for right this moment’s era of faculty leavers who’ve grown up in a digital world and wish to work in a job that permits them to additional immerse themselves in it.
So, what must be executed?
Business-wide assist for coaching technicians is particularly vital because the automotive trade modifications to incorporate extra non-traditional vehicles resembling EVs. One of many greatest challenges we’re seeing right this moment being the widening abilities hole in repairing these autos.
The explanations behind this hole are advanced. Technicians aren’t getting the specialist coaching wanted, not as a result of to their very own shortcomings, however due to underlying challenges confronted by unbiased workshops. These challenges embrace the price of instruments, lack of governmental assist for coaching funding, and the scarcity of time for coaching on account of fewer technicians coming into the trade.
Though workshop software program instruments can improve effectivity, the unanimous settlement is evident: there should be extra available coaching for each new and skilled technicians. Nurturing apprenticeship programmes are one surefire option to assist the way forward for automotive and fulfil these present abilities gaps, however extra must be executed.
This duty doesn’t relaxation solely on the workshops; a collective effort is required to handle these rising abilities gaps. The federal government should do extra to domesticate a brand new era of technicians and to equip garages to fulfill these evolving calls for. We can’t sit quiet whereas concrete assist for vocational abilities is being left behind.
James Lett is a technical knowledgeable at Autodata, a platform that gives mechanics with the technical and actual time data wanted to successfully work on over 40,000 autos.
