Built to evolve: Two milestones for Autotech Group

This September marked two significant milestones for Autotech Group, as Autotech Training celebrates its 10th anniversary and Autotech Academy reaches five years.

On Monday, teams from across Autotech Group came together to celebrate both anniversaries – milestones which reflect a bigger story about how the company has developed alongside the automotive industry.

When Autotech Recruit launched in 2010, its purpose was clear: to help automotive businesses overcome skills shortages by providing qualified, experienced temporary vehicle technicians and MOT testers.

While recruitment remains at the heart of Autotech Group today, as the industry’s workforce challenges have changed, our response has broadened.

Responding to a changing skills landscape

Autotech Training launched in 2016, initially supporting the skills and compliance requirements of Autotech Recruit’s growing network of contractors.

However, over the decade that followed, electrification, ADAS, increasingly sophisticated diagnostics and connected vehicle technology transformed the skills landscape. Autotech Training expanded with it, moving from its early focus on MOT Management courses into technical and non-technical training supporting businesses across automotive and the wider mobility sector.

Today, more than 10,000 people have been trained through Autotech Training.

Five years later, Autotech Academy was created in response to a different challenge. Qualified young people were leaving college ready to begin their automotive careers but struggling to secure their first role because employers wanted practical workshop experience.

Through paid internships, Autotech Academy provides that missing bridge, giving newly qualified technicians the opportunity to gain experience and demonstrate their capabilities in a working environment.

Five years on, more than 560 interns have been placed across 250 employer sites, with Academy working with more than 70 colleges. Of those successfully completing their internships, 95% have progressed into permanent automotive employment.

Different challenges, connected solutions

Autotech Training and Autotech Academy were created five years apart, but both demonstrate the same principle: there is no single solution to the automotive skills challenge.

The industry needs to attract new people and give them a route in, while also recruiting skilled professionals and continually developing the capabilities of its existing workforce.

This has seen Autotech Group grow from a specialist recruitment company into a broader automotive workforce solutions partner – with Autotech Recruit providing skilled resource, Autotech Training developing workforce capability and Autotech Academy helping create the next generation of automotive professionals.

More recently, Autotech Connect has extended this approach into technology-enabled solutions supporting efficiency, knowledge sharing and technical capability.

Reflecting on the two anniversaries, Simon King, CEO of Autotech Group, said: “These anniversaries are an opportunity to recognise the people who have shaped Autotech Training and Autotech Academy over the years, as well as the customers, colleges and industry partners who have supported us along the way.

But is also provides an opportunity to look ahead. The technologies, skills and people shaping automotive will continue to change, and the workforce solutions the industry needs will change with them.

The challenges that led us to create Autotech Training and Autotech Academy haven’t disappeared – they’ve evolved. And we will continue to evolve with them.”

As Autotech Training and Autotech Academy enter their next chapters, that same focus on responding to the needs of the industry will continue.