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Developing young people through apprenticeships and traineeships is one of the most valuable processes a business can do for long term sustainability of the business and the industry. With ageing staff and large amounts of experience leaving our industry everyday, there is only one way of capturing that knowledge for the future- and that is through ongoing training of our people.

Training both technicians and apprentices is one of the key factors that will drive our businesses into the future.

I’ve found that trades people get a real buzz from training someone, it gives them a sense of purpose and boosts their pride especially after nurturing and growing someone to succeed and become qualified. Teaching standard operating procedures also keeps tradespeople honest and helps in keeping everyone on the same page.

Patience is an absolute requirement for employers of apprentices, as some take much longer to mature their skills than others and they are all of varying personalities. We must change our thinking and come up with solutions to the challenges of having apprentices to keep them motivated about having a career in the industry. 

At Eblen Collision we have employed countless apprentices and successfully produced many tradespeople from many different backgrounds. First and foremost is finding apprentices who are passionate about motor vehicles and we find most applicants are. It is important to identify this passion as it will drive your workers much longer than any incentive program.

Having a great attitude is also a requirement. A bad attitude is hard to teach or mentor out of someone so holding people accountable for their attitude at the forefront and reminding them of their promise to having a good attitude can be half the battle. With these two attributes in place any apprentice can be turned from unskilled labourer into an asset for any company.

Giving apprentices the opportunity to dive in and experience the trade from the absolute beginning is vital. This gives us the ability to see the potential right at the start and what direction of training will be required.

We don’t believe in pushing brooms around and washing cars for a year, we have high ambitions for our apprentices and that is to keep them motivated as well as failing fast. Failing faster means they learn faster and while there are areas we cannot afford them to fail in it is important that they do.

Throwing apprentices in the deep end may seem a bit scary however we have found that hovering over them and not letting them experience the ins and outs of the trade can be just as detrimental as experiencing failure. It is good for apprentices to feel trusted in having a go and when they accomplish something it motivates them to push harder the next time as well as giving them pride in accomplishment. While working on jobs on their own it is also important they have the confidence of having tradespeople they can approach and ask questions no matter how simple. If an apprentice doesn’t have this ability then they tend to be left to their own devices and so the learning process takes longer and if they are not strong willed this can affect confidence

Once an apprentice has developed to a point where they are working more independently on their own jobs, introducing goals for them to achieve keeps them engaged and they know what the business requires from them.

Seeing the qualified technician continually improving their skills through I-CAR training sets a good example to the apprentices and also shows that the business owner continues to invest in their team.

Businesses should never view apprentices as a cost effective proposition for cheap labour. Investing time in these young people is investing in the future of our businesses and the industry at large.

All of us need to be involved, we can all make a difference to our own business and the industry by truly being invested in training for the future.

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