Earlier this month, Thatcham, the motor insurance repair research centre, opened the doors to its new bodyshop training development.
The centre aims to ramp up the number of apprentices entering the sector. The not-for-profit organisation says it is acutely aware that unless more is done to attract young people into the industry, the UK is facing a potential repair crisis.
Learning and Skills Council research shows that the bodyshop industry is the fifth most difficult sector to recruit for in the UK and recent studies have also found that only one third of bodyshops currently take on apprentices.
“This is just the first step in addressing skills issues in the sector,” Eugene Incerti, Thatcham operations director, said.
“Unless we change the branding of the industry we are going to have a real servicing problem.
“If you say the word bodyshop to someone, the first thing they think about is cosmetics and the next is the under-the arches businesses in Coronation Street and Eastenders.”
Incerti said that in order to avoid a servicing crisis, perceptions of the bodyshop industry had to change.
“We have got to start upping the bodyshop brand and start recognising that we have got a massive problem — because if we don't attract workers, prices are going to spiral out of control and ultimately the customer is going to have to pay,” Incerti said.
He said that the UK faced a “demographic hole” if new recruits were not found as the average age of bodyshop staff was between 45 and 55 years old.
“We have got a greying population and the reality is that we may have a demographic hole in the industry in the future if we don't change things now,” Incerti said.
Over the years few organisations have done as much as Thatcham to raise awareness of the skills gap crisis and attempt to address it.
With plans to open another training centre in Doncaster in the north of England next year, Thatcham has set the ambitious target of training 2,000 apprentices in both centres by 2009.
And with further plans to expand its footprint into Wales and Scotland, Thatcham has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to raising the profile of the sector.
“We want to feature across the UK in Wales and Scotland but we need to research how to fund that,” he said.
“We want everyone to come to Thatcham but even if they don't come to us and we attract more people into the industry then that is a major plus.
“We'd love other centres to follow and if they can deliver what we deliver then great but bodywork and paint is not attractive to colleges because of the level of investment involved,” he added.
Thatcham has provided training out of its first, long-established training centre for many years but the opening of the new centre has provided a timely boost to maintaining apprentice numbers.
Incerti said the organisation would have had a capacity problem within 12 months time if it had not managed to secure the new premises.
“We were very lucky. If Panasonic had not released the building last October it would have been a setback, but we were fortunate and
it came at exactly the
right time.”
Thatcham funded the development itself and put up the money for the centre in advance of taking on apprentices, as it did not want to exacerbate the skills shortage, Incerti said.
He added: “It is a significant investment for us but it is a project that will break even. We have the tools and the right commodities in place and we're extremely confident about the future.”
Manufacturers including Land Rover, Jaguar and BMW already use Thatcham for their existing training schemes and large independents including Nationwide, Just Car Clincs and Royal Bank of Scotland also use the training programmes.
Around 35 other employers from smaller independent businesses use the Thatcham apprenticeship programmes and those are the companies that Incerti is happiest about.
“Apprenticeship training is not about capital investment, it's all about mindset. If we have the right attitude we can do this and employers must realise they have a big part to play.”