[00:00:00] Amelia: Hello and welcome back to CareerCon, where this month we're taking a deep dive inside the automotive industry, in collaboration with City & Guilds. I'm Amelia. I'm head of programs at hundo. And most recently I've been working on the automotive employability program also with City & Guilds. So for those considering a career in the automotive industry and wondering how they should get started, we've got the perfect speakers for you today.

first mark. First up is Mark Davidson, Director of Development in the North London Garages, who brings us a wealth of insights from working in the industry and in training and education. He's also featured on the UK TV program, Classic Car Garages, and has another exciting upcoming program, which we're excited to hear more about.

And joining Mark is Ben Marriott, an RAC Patrol Apprentice, who's going to tell us about his career so far, how he got into the automotive industry and life as an apprentice. So welcome Mark and Ben, it's great to have you with us. The title for today's conversation is very appropriately, Shifting Gears, Career Journeys and Expert Insights.

So by way of an introduction, Mark, could you start by telling us a bit about your journey into the industry and the key changes that you've noticed throughout your career?  

[00:01:30] Mark: Yeah, that was a great title by the way. okay. So my name is Mark Davidson and my journey started when I was. Around about eight years old, actually, I started, working with Lego, gaining small hand skills.

and as I sort of grew up, my family had, Ford vehicles. we had a Sierra at the time and I was out in the garden with my stepdad fixing, cars, probably always breaking down. So I was sort of hands on and that excited me when I was a young person. So as I grew a bit older from the age of 12, I realized that I wanted to have a, have a career and I had a passion for fixing things and cars.

at the age of 15, just before my GCSEs, a position that many people find themselves in. And what do I do with my career? I actually approached Ford. directly, I had the courage to write a letter, approach them in my local town and went and, tried to secure an interview. Luckily I gained an interview just after my GCSEs where I lined it up before, and successfully, got the interview.

So I started as an apprentice literally within about, five, six weeks after finishing my GCSE. So straight from one, element of education into another. and at that point, I then had an apprenticeship for five years working with Ford. And, you know, when I look back at some of the technologies that we had, you know, some of the cars are very, very different from today.

they had mechanical windows, wind down windows that some people probably will never experience. we have, manual locking. You know, these days you can push a lock button and on a key fob and everything unlocks. so the technology has massively changed since I was an apprentice. So when we look back at the vehicles sort of 20, 20 years ago to compare to some of the vehicles today.

so not only is the industry changed, the vehicle has Changed as well. You know, we now have a car that can be fully controlled remotely, in the cloud. lock-in driver comfort, security. you get faster vehicles. the more efficient and I think, the, the internet has massively supported that development, over the years.

And, climate control now, I would suggest. You know, for us as a forefront within the automotive industry, looking at electric vehicles, looking at, and that also drives technology change, in the industry, you know, and I've been, I've been in the industry now for about 25 years, and I've gone from, an apprentice, over to, a senior technician, working for large manufacturers, Jaguar Land Rover actually finished that, and then at that point, I then decided that I wanted to move into a teaching role, and pass that knowledge over.

So I've moved over into the teaching role, and then continued developing myself and, went on to opening other college centres, managing programmes, supporting and developing, curriculums to pass that knowledge over for, young people. And it's been a really good, step forward, I think, for myself.

And there's been such a wide variety of opportunities. So not only does the automotive industry bring in repair for fixing cars, it brings in many different departments, over the, over the time.  

[00:05:14] Amelia: Brilliant. Thanks, Mark. So 25 years in the industry, and it sounds like from the beginning you loved cars.

You were always interested. Ben, moving over to you as a relative newcomer in the industry. can you tell us how you entered into your current role as an apprentice? what's your career journey been like so far? and how do you feel your apprenticeship is already beginning to shape your career?

[00:05:43] Ben: Yeah, absolutely. well, I mean, I took a much more meandering role into the automotive, automotive, automotive industry, than Mark has. so I started off by going to university, when I turned 18, to study theoretical physics. so I've always had, like a kind of an interest in physics and maths.

so I thought that was the perfect degree for me to do. after university finished, I wasn't really sure of what, what to do. I wasn't. I had no clue of where to go with my career. I didn't really have much career help, when I was coming out of university. I just kind of thought I'll get a degree and then it should all fall into place.

I ended up becoming a science teacher coming out of university. I spent a year teaching in a secondary school. after that year finished, I took on a variety of odd jobs. so I was, I did some bartending, I did some delivery driving. Just anything to, to get the money in because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do going forwards.

I ended up falling into an x ray engineering role. So I used to go, around the country, fixing x ray machines for vets, dentists, chiropractors. And it was then that I kind of realized how much I enjoyed working with my hands, rather than, like, type of on a spreadsheet. I enjoyed having a machine that was broken and ended up with a fixed machine.

and I realized that I need to turn a passion for cars I've always had into a career. So that's when I decided to look for a role in the, in the car industry. and I found that the RAC were hiring, apprentices. So I applied for the role and I was fortunate enough to, to be accepted. so I've been in the role now since April of this year and I have absolutely no regrets about joining.

I'm absolutely loving my time at the RAC. the, the prospects as an RAC patrol apprentice are fantastic. There's a job waiting for you at the end of your course as a fully qualified patrol. So you're out on the roads, helping people with breakdowns, fixing cars. you can also. Progress into management quite easily.

There's, there's a good, a good path into management and the RAC has recently offered a new, a new branch, which is our service maintenance and repair team. So essentially we have people who will go to customers addresses to do things like replacing brakes or minor engine work, alternators, things like that.

So there's, there's different, roles within the RAC that you could do rather than just going to breakdowns.  

[00:08:35] Amelia: And so. Within your specific role as a patrol apprentice, what, what, what's your day to day? What does a typical day look like for you? and if you could sort of highlight the specific skills, anything that stands out, which are most prevalent in your day?

[00:08:52] Ben: There's no such thing as a typical day, as a, as an RAC patrol out on the road. it sounds cliche, but it, but it is true. You attend a variety of breakdowns throughout the day. It could be anything from customers not knowing how to turn the car on to putting the wrong fuel in the car to complete engine failure.

So you never know what your day is going to involve until you get to the job. So it's our job to try and diagnose issues with the car as quickly as we can and to make decisions that will best help the customer. For example, if somebody has a flat tyre, we could potentially help them to repair that tyre.

Or we can put a multi fit wheel onto their car. So that's a wheel that fits multiple different vehicles and we can get them a new wheel. we can change components on the roadside. So we do a lot of, flat batteries. We can replace those batteries on the roadside. we have a lot of stock of batteries in our own vans, so we can just straight away, half an hour, fit new batteries.

but if, if there's something we can't fix on the roadside, we also have a trailer in the back of the van that we can use to, to tow vehicles to. a local garage or to a customer's address, wherever, wherever they need to go. when you, when you've been at the RAC as an apprentice for a few months, they will give you your own van to drive around in.

And that comes fully equipped with all of your tools that you'll need. so I've, I've recently been signed off to tow solo. So, I will be spending one day of the week out by myself, just going to, to customers and towing their vehicles. three weeks of the month, I'm out with a mentor. So I'll be sat with an experienced mechanic and we'll be going together to jobs and you learn on the job.

And I spend one week of the month in college here, in North London to, to learn the, the more workshop side of things. and our, our college is, it's fantastic. There's a group of apprentices here that have been here for the same sort of length of time. And we've got that, it's a really nice camaraderie that we've got.

it's a good group of people. when you, when you say about, important skills to have on roadside, the most important one is to be adaptable. Because you go two breakdowns, the same fault, and be completely different circumstances. because you've got a vehicle that could be broken down in a car park, and one that's broken down on the motorway.

That's it. You're going to approach those differently, and you've got to have the ability to think about what's best for the customer, what's best for your safety, and then find a solution like that. sometimes there's a vehicle that you know you're able to fix, but it's best for the customer to get it to a garage rather than you spending a few hours on the road trying to try to fix that vehicle.

it's, it's very important as well to be a people person because When it comes to breakdowns, people are always on their way somewhere, so breaking down is the worst possible thing that can happen to them at that point. And you can get some people that are very frustrated, very angry at the situation, and you've got to be able to manage the situation and sort of calm them down.

[00:12:12] Amelia: I think that that's definitely an element of the job that you're right, can't be overlooked. and congratulations on your, solo tow status. I've had a fair few call outs in my time. I'm definitely very grateful. Mark, coming back to you, you talked about how the industry's changed during your time within it.

for newcomers, what are some key roles in the industry that people might not necessarily know about which are sort of vital to its success and that young people could consider going into?  

[00:12:46] Mark: So the automotive industry is massive. When you look at it, it goes from not just in the UK, it's, it's international across the world.

you know, manufacturers drive, a lot of these job roles, and it's the manufacturers of the vehicles that, have different departments and, and not only with the manufacturers, but there's all sorts of streams of, career paths that some, that an individual could take. for example, you know, I went through the service maintenance and repair side of the, industry to start with and then I moved on to the, lecture, lecturing and educational side.

But there's other sort of roles. You've got sales of selling new vehicles, selling used vehicles. You've got recovery and breakdown as Ben is doing with RAC. We've got body shop. So looking after vehicles that have had minor accidents or even building vehicles and spraying them in the factory. Detailing is quite a big area now.

So, you know, when I was an apprentice, it was a valeting bay. Now it's called detailing. And I know it's, it's quite, you know, that has seen a big improvement with the chemicals and the treatments that you can have with paint jobs and, and vehicles looking after them. so there's many ways you can go into, manufacturing, you can go into, so that's building the components, you go into design, so it all depends, you know, there's pretty much a role for every sort of skill, within the automotive industry, because now to work on a vehicle you have to be someone that does fabrication, that, you know, makes the seats, you've got a glass technician, you've got someone that makes tires, so you've got rubber components, you've got, metal components, so there's, there is, And then you've got the CAD and design and the 3D printing for the test vehicles.

You know, it's, it's a very wide open type of, industry. When we look at the, so there are the roles that you can go into, but you look at the avenues of how someone would get into the automotive industry, you could, you've got the basics of, maybe like a stepping stone course. These do traineeships, that they've now stopped those, but the sort of the lower, the lower end type of, qualifications may be sort of a stepping stone, maybe like a level one.

You could go into a normal full time college to do a study program. So that's studying generally three days a week in a local college to where someone may reside. and, you know, you gain good skills in that type of course. you go to college and you learn in a set up environment. So you're in the workshop being taught by a trainer.

the next sort of role that, It's a little bit harder, but it does provide skills ready to get someone into the automotive industry. So that's an apprenticeship. So that's what we specialize in. So very much like Ben, we have apprentices come here for either one day a week or on block release, and they will be taught by our leading experts, to teach them how to do the repairs, teach them how to carry out a job, but they then take that knowledge back into the industry and apply it.

On the tools or whatever that role may be in an apprenticeship, so it could be apprenticeship in designing, but you then go back to the workplace, four days a week, maybe five, depending on the job, the job role and apply those skills. those will deliver, many skills. you could then move on to, A degree program, so that's more higher level learning, so that could be level, five and six, and they will provide different types of career paths, that could be the manufacturing process, it could be into the design and CAD side of it.

Generally, you will find the sort of levels for a mechanic, Two, three, up to four, and then your degree programs are for your engineering and design which are level five and six. no program is probably better than the other. It depends. They're all, they're all suited to the individual. Everybody has their own sort of, the best pathway that would suit them on their circumstances and their own educational, needs.

So, I think it's exploring for, you know, my advice for a young person is to, or not even just generally a young person, for anybody getting into the industry is to look at what their personal circumstances are, how they prefer their learning, which type of career route and educational route they would prefer.

[00:17:24] Amelia: So building on that, and the different, all the different types of roles available. Ben's told us a bit about the skills that are important in his day to day. so Mark, what would you say are some important skills for young professionals entering the automotive world? How can they prepare for them and develop them as they move into their career?

[00:17:45] Mark: It very much depends on the type of role that someone is going into. you know, if they're going into being in a mechanic world, or a technician's role, and they're hands on, then I think, you know, gaining the skills for, your motor fine skills, which is your communication from your head to your hands, you know, they're good to develop.

You can, work on things, you know, like Lego, like fixing things, messing around with, DIY, as long as you don't do anything dangerous, of course. you know, general repairs on a pushbike, motorbikes, cars, anything that if someone, someone would generally know what type of, if they like, if they like fixing things and exploring with, hands on type roles.

But there are other skills that, job roles are, that are different. So you could be in a design skill. You could be a salesperson. You know, to be a salesperson, You will need good communication skills. You need to build trust up with individuals to be able to gain that trust of someone who wants to.

spend thousands of pounds on a new car. you know, they're not going to do that if they, if they don't trust you. and generally like for myself now being in the role that I'm in and, and some of the roles that I've had previously, if I look to take people on for staff or apprentices, now I'll look at things like the soft skills side of it as well as not just the hands on skills.

it's the soft skills. So we'll be looking at people's behaviors, qualities, because it's very easy to. teach someone a hand skill, you know, I can teach someone how to fix a car, but it's very difficult for me to change someone's qualities or behaviours, so I think when I interview somebody, so if anybody is going out to an interview, you know, think about how they will, how they, how their appearance is, how they cut, how they talk, you know, being punctual all the time, and building their confidence, so I think, you know, turning up to an interview, You've got to be confident to be able to show that you will be able to handle yourself in a situation and, you know, some of the advice that I can give is, your first interview may not always be successful, you know, but it, but going into an interview does give somebody the opportunity to gain the interview skills, to gain that confidence.

So, and that will help develop them and prepare them. To go into the industry,  

[00:20:13] Amelia: I think. Yeah. It's something we've heard time and time again from people in your industry and educators, which is communication skills cannot be overstated how important they are. and Ben's given us an example of that on roadside breakdown, which I imagine are very fraught.

Before we come back to you, Ben, Mark, I, I need to ask you about your TV program. please tell us more. what do you do? How does it educate people and how does it encourage people to get involved in the industry?  

[00:20:45] Mark: Okay. So yeah, so, fortunately for me, I've been very lucky and I've been involved in a TV program, called classic car garage.

So at North London garages, we have an amazing, workshop that we, and my boss, Colin Denson, The CEO of North Island Garages. We had a great idea one day that we were going to provide our workshop for people that are car enthusiasts. So these are, this is an opportunity for someone to bring a car in to our workshop for free, use our ramp.

they might want to do an oil change, they might have an electrical problem that they can't fix, you know, they don't really trust, because obviously with a, with a car enthusiast, they love their car more than sometimes their family members. so they don't want to let it out of their sight. So, they may want, you know, they bring it into the workshop and We will then help them and teach them and guide them to do some of their small basic repairs themselves.

So that's a service that you can't get in the, in a garage, you know, you'll drop your car off. It goes, you don't see it until you have to go and collect it once it's completed. But this, but during the show, we actually, We do the repair with them, we teach them, and obviously myself and the team on the TV program, we are all trainers as well.

so we actually provide that training to them. And it was such a success that, the TV company then thought, this is a great idea, we want to, we want to be part of this. and they started filming the, the, filming what we were doing. and it created a TV program. So now not only is it educated people within the workshop, it's also educated people at home, you know, of a, Sunday evening or whenever they want to, want to watch this, they can watch it on catch up.

and you will see us fixing different types of faults on the car. coming up with ideas to that are outside the box sometimes for a repair. but it does give a great insight for not, not only the people on the show, but also people watching at home. and it gave us, it gives the people on the show, the confidence as well to do their own repairs because, someone may love fixing their car, but they just don't They're just frightened of it.

I don't want to touch that in case the wheel falls off next time I drive it. You know, whereas we will make sure that they come in, they do that repair and they get our expert expertise at the same time.  

[00:23:07] Amelia: Amazing. I I'm definitely frightened of cars, so I'll give it a watch and you never know. Maybe I'll be a pro next time you see me.

Slightly short on time here, but Ben, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you the last word. and really, we'd just love to know what advice you would give any young people who are interested in the industry, especially when they're starting out and might be considering an apprenticeship. what would you say to them?

[00:23:34] Ben: Well, my philosophy with working is that you're going to spend the majority of your life working. So why wouldn't you want to do something that you enjoy, that you're interested in? So If there's anybody who loves, loves cars, start researching all the roles that are available. As Mark has said, there's so many different types of roles you can have within the industry.

it's not all just doing an MOT or doing an oil change. There's so many different parts of it. You'll always find something that suits you. and there's always an apprenticeship that will work for you as well. the job prospects are amazing. And by the time you've, you've finished your apprenticeship, you're a step up on everybody else.

who's just entered the workforce. You've got that experience and you've got qualifications to go with it as well. and because there are so many different types of roles available, if you find yourself not enjoying the role that you're currently doing, it's not too late to just change to a different part of the industry because there will always be a role that will suit you.

I'm, I'm 25 years old and I've started my apprenticeship this year, so it's never too late to start that apprenticeship. We have other apprentices here that are sort of 35, 40, so it's not a case of it's something you have to do when you're 18. You can do it later down the line if you want. there's always that opportunity that's going to be there.

but I, from my, from my perspective, I can't recommend the apprenticeship more. It's been fantastic. It's been such a great experience to be here. and you gain skills that you'll use for a lifetime. So once you've learned to fix your car, you'll never pay anybody to fix your car again, because you'll have the knowledge and the wants to, to repair your own cars and you become a very useful friend.

everybody wants to have a friend who's a mechanic to help them tinker on their own car. and once you've got these skills as well, there's many opportunities to create your own businesses. So there are people that created a mobile mechanic businesses, recovery businesses. independent garages, tire shops, engine rebuilds, anything you want to do, you can create a business for that.

so there's, there's fantastic prospects, down the line.

[00:25:52] Amelia: Brilliant. Thanks, Ben. We love to end on a positive note and you've, you've done that very well for us. So thank you. and thank you both so much for sharing your, your insights with us. to everyone joining us, I hope you found this a valuable conversation as you consider or continue your career in the automotive industry.

and you can find out more about Mark, Ben, North London Garages, hopefully, Mark's TV shows as well, if you just look in the episode description for this conversation. also remember how to check out how hundo can support your career with resources and insights and sign up for updates on our next career con series at hundo.xyz. so Mark, Ben, it's been amazing to have you with us and thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us today. Thank you. Goodbye everyone. Thank you.