The automotive retail sector does not need reminding of the importance of attracting young talent, writes Simon King, CEO, Autotech Group.
Across the UK, considerable investment is already being made in apprenticeships and structured early-career pathways. The more difficult question is: what happens next?
Getting somebody into a workshop at 18, 20 or 22 is one measure of success. Whether they are still building an automotive career three, five or ten years later is another.
Our own research highlights the challenge. In a survey of almost 300 vehicle technicians, 75% of those aged 18–34 said career progression and training opportunities were essential. Their ambitions were clear too: 42% were seeking promotion and 25% aspired to management.
Yet 71% were dissatisfied with the advancement opportunities available to them. The issue isn’t a lack of ambition. It’s the gap between where younger technicians want their careers to go and the opportunities they can see to get there.
Getting them in is only the beginning
When Autotech Academy was established five years ago, much of our focus was on the disconnect between education and employment. Young people were achieving automotive qualifications but struggling to secure their first technician roles because employers wanted practical experience.
Cameron Bell’s experience illustrates the challenge. After achieving his Level 3 Light Vehicle Maintenance and Repair qualification in 2019, he struggled to secure a technician role and spent three years working as a labourer.
“I kept hearing I needed experience, but no one was willing to give me a chance,” he recalls.
An internship with Stoneacre Motor Group eventually provided that opportunity and Cameron progressed into a permanent service technician role at Stoneacre Toyota Gateshead. As his experience grew, he moved beyond servicing into more diagnostic and repair work and is now also studying mechanical engineering alongside his job.
His journey demonstrates why getting someone into the workshop cannot be the end measure of success. What happens to that potential afterwards matters just as much.
Progression doesn’t have to mean promotion
For younger technicians, progression can take many forms: being trusted with more complex work, developing diagnostic capability, gaining manufacturer accreditation, specialising in a particular area or working towards becoming a master technician.
What matters is career visibility. Can somebody see how the work they are doing today connects to what they could be doing in two, three or five years?
Former Academy intern Sophie Herbert provides an interesting example. After completing an IMI Level 2 Diploma in Motorsport Vehicle Maintenance and Repair, Sophie secured an internship with a Ford Authorised Repairer, which led to a permanent position. After more than two years she moved into an all-makes environment, broadening her technical knowledge and building her confidence in diagnosing and repairing vehicles independently.
Sophie has now joined Listers Lexus Bristol as a vehicle technician, with the latest workshop equipment and manufacturer development opportunities among the factors attracting her to the role.
Her journey reflects what our research is telling us: ambitious young technicians will actively seek opportunities to develop. The challenge for employers is ensuring they don’t always feel they have to look elsewhere to find them.
Retention doesn’t mean standing still
A young technician’s career is unlikely to be static. They may want exposure to different vehicles, brands and technologies or eventually move towards diagnostics, electrification, management or another specialism.
For larger dealer groups, that creates an opportunity to make pathways across sites, brands and roles more visible. Development doesn’t always require a formal career move either.
When Ahmed Mahamud joined Group 1 Jaguar Land Rover North West London as an intern, he initially shadowed experienced technicians and started with straightforward work. As his capability grew, he was trusted with increasingly complex jobs. Within a year, his senior tech workshop controller described him as having developed from a student into a fully-fledged vehicle technician.
For an early-career technician, these incremental markers matter. They show them they are progressing – and that their employer recognises it.
There is no single formula for creating that progression. Our work with Toyota and Lexus retailers has shown how internships can be shaped around a dealer group’s existing recruitment and manufacturer development pathways, complementing established apprenticeship programmes rather than replacing them.
That flexibility is important. The route into the workshop may differ from business to business, but the opportunity to gain experience, develop and see a career ahead is what turns recruitment into retention.
Are we measuring the right things?
The industry has become increasingly sophisticated at creating routes into automotive. But recruitment numbers alone cannot tell us whether those strategies are succeeding.
We should also be asking: where are those technicians three or five years later? What have they learned? How have their responsibilities changed? Can they see their next career step – and do they believe they need to leave the business to take it?
More than 560 newly qualified technicians have entered internships through Autotech Academy, with over 95% of those successfully completing their internships transitioning into permanent employment.
Yet the original challenge hasn’t gone away. Autotech Academy currently has more than 750 Level 3 qualified technicians actively seeking employment – people who have already chosen automotive, gained the qualifications the industry needs and are still waiting for that crucial first opportunity.
The challenge, therefore, is not recruitment or retention – it is both.
Dealer groups need to think about workforce planning as a continuum: how do we solve the resource pressures we have today while building the technical workforce we need tomorrow?
That means looking beyond individual vacancies and bringing short-term resourcing, early-career recruitment and longer-term development into the same workforce strategy.
Ultimately, success isn’t simply about how many vacancies we fill today. It’s whether the decisions we make now are building the automotive workforce we will need in the years ahead.
Author: Simon King, chief executive, Autotech Group
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