Author: Mark Hadaway

The NBRA is supporting a government petition to allow businesses in the automotive industry to recruit workers from overseas to address the growing skills gap in the sector.

The petition has been launched by Ingenia Recruitment with the support of the IMI, and all businesses in the industry have been encouraged to sign it.

Steve Nash, CEO of the IMI, said: “The non-manufacturing side of automotive, which includes the sales and distribution as well as the service and repair networks, employs over 600,000 people in the UK, but is facing unprecedented skills shortages. Currently the sector has over 23,000 vacancies, which equate to four per cent of the workforce. And many of those vacancies are in the technical roles such as light vehicle technicians, HGV technicians and body and paint technicians. These are skilled roles which require extensive training; typically at least three years to become qualified at the minimum level.

“Apprentices have long been the lifeblood of the automotive sector. But the inevitable reductions in the recruitment and training of apprentices resulting from the pandemic have created a shortage of young talent which will take some years to catch up from, despite the fact that employers are recruiting new trainees at record rates. So other solutions must be found and one such solution is for the key automotive technical roles previously mentioned to be added to the UK Government’s Shortage Occupation List, facilitating easier recruitment of talent from abroad. That is why the Institute of the Motor Industry is supporting this petition.”

Chris Weeks, Executive Director, NBRA, said: “The next generation of automotive technicians has grown up in the age of smart technology. Audatex’s training will reveal the growing complexity and technology behind the everyday vehicles we take for granted and hopefully, this will fire their imagination.”