February 2021

the car. They had no idea. He went very pale, went outside and jumped on his mobile phone, and overnight implemented having the key cabinet 20 metres away. “That is one little thing. If you are thinking and running your business the way Andy talks about, then that is the sort of thing people should be doing, and helping themselves out really.” Valuable In conclusion, we gave Andy the last word: “There’s been nothing like this before. It’s the first of its kind in the UK, where a college is incorporating my training. This is real- life stuff, things I did well or badly over the years, and what I am now teaching to the younger generation. “If you capture them young, and give them the right knowledge on how to run a business, then you can do two things. Firstly, it will make them more valuable to an employer. If they have got some understanding, and have some of the business acumen of a garage, it makes them more valuable. Then, in 10 years time they want to go and do something on their own, at least they have done something that gives them a bit of grounding.” He concluded: “I am very pleased but also very humbled by the fact that Pete has accepted it and hopefully Lincoln College will be the first, but not the last.” FEBRUARYY 2021 AFTERMARKET 41 www.aftermarketonline.net centered around what we do, especially when it comes to finance and everything else. I want to be able to offer this unique training to youngsters, and get them trained up for the big wide world.” Electric Avenue The inclusion of The Garage Inspector elements to the course is part of a larger plan at Lincoln College to provide a wider viewpoint, to the benefit of the whole industry. Pete commented: “Rather than dwell with the 16-18 year olds, we are pushing forward to be employer-led by going for the higher courses, which will also include Level 4 electric vehicle and ADAS. We have a new MOT bay, and workshop we call Electric Avenue. This has BMW i3, a Toyota Prius rig fully operational trainer, a Nissan Leaf fully operational trainer, and a lot more.” Pete continued: “In addition to that, there are three programmes for the full-time students. We have done a lot of employer research asking them what they would like for the 16-18- year olds, and also for their apprentices. Quite a lot of different ideas came back. The main one was about new technology, ADAS, EVs etc. As a result, we have incorporated new technology sessions into our current study programmes. “Every study programme holds two- hour technology sessions every week. One is focused on electric vehicles, the other is on ADAS. This means when they go out into the world, and they are doing work experience and they are on industrial placement, that is the sort of thing they need to know to stay safe as technology moves forward.” Banging the drum Having people understand the technology is one thing. Having it work within a business is something else entirely. We asked Pete how important Andy’s contribution is in terms of his way of running a business and encouraging this kind of thinking within the industry: “I think it’s vital,” he replied. “We believed we were a little bit behind the curve with what the industry was doing up until two or three years ago. Then a couple of us went to Autoinform Live, and got to know the likes of Andy Savva and Schaeffler etc. You start to look at what’s going on, and Andy started banging the drum at our level at college. Then we suddenly realised that the industry doesn’t understand a lot of it. They don’t know about ADAS, they don’t know about the calibration. Those on the windscreen side do, and those in the bodyshop sector are beginning to get there. The main garage sector is still a long way behind. “We had someone from HELLA come to do an ADAS presentation three years ago, and one of the garage owners stood up and said ‘we’re not interested in this futuristic stuff’, and then his mate jabbed him in the ribs and told him ‘It’s been here three years Dave!’ “That evening we had about 50 garages with us, and they started phoning up and emailing asking with regards to the next one ‘can I bring someone else? Then, when Andy Savva came in, we had people coming from all over the country, not just Lincolnshire. His section was the one that people wanted to get to. He’s talking about them specialising and really understanding one element of the business rather than being Jack of all Trades. “This is absolutely vital, and of course, with the government’s announcement that we are going all- EV from 2030, where you won’t be able to buy a new petrol or diesel car, it makes it even more important. The IMI is saying there will be 55,000 technicians that need training in EVs alone, how can an independent garage do ADAS, EVs, every make and model of car, and have the technology and software to support that? They just can’t. The generic future has to be ADAS and EVs, which will click into connected vehicles and MOT, purely by the nature of the technology. They will be brand- specific too, and every brand will have electric vehicles.” This creates all sorts of problems and challenges that many garages are only catching up with now: “At Autoinform a couple of years ago, there was a chap who had a garage, and they regularly serviced 30 or 40 hybrids, and he had no idea that a petrol engine could start up, without oil in it, when they are changing the oil or filter, if the battery dictated that it needed charging, and the key was in the vehicle. They kept the key in This is real life stuff, things I did well over the years and what I am now teaching to the younger generation ” Lincoln College will be offering places on the Level 4 Certificate in Advanced Automotive Engineering Studies and the Level 4 Diploma in Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Principles from September 2021. For more information, please visit: www.lincolncollege.ac.uk/co urses/diploma-in-vehicle- maintenance-and-repair- principles-level-4