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Group 1 Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has become the latest dealership to partner with Autotech Academy and take on an intern in a bid to counteract the challenges of employing skilled vehicle technicians.
Bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical experience within the automotive industry is a critical challenge, but exploring a new route to harness talent has enabled the JLR site in North West London to successfully grow its team.
Autotech Academy offers a unique, 6-12 month paid internship program for newly qualified Level 3 automotive students – which paves the way for them to secure a permanent role within the sector.
By equipping interns with a uniform and toolbox, which becomes theirs to keep if they successfully secure an automotive role upon completing the internship, Autotech Academy not only eases the transition from education to professional work but also makes the recruitment of young talent easier for employers.
Ahmed Mahamud joined JLR as an Autotech Academy intern in June 2023 after qualifying from college and has now been employed by them permanently. “The internship has been a great success for us,” comments Kevin Grimes Service Manager at the Group One Jaguar Land Rover site.
“Ahmed joined us raw from college, and he immediately showed the right attitude and was keen. He had no preconceived ideas of how to adapt to a workplace setting after being in full-time education, so we have instilled this within him, and he has adjusted well to our way of working and the JLR standards. We need more people like him.”
Ankeet Shah, Service Administrator for the JLR site, adds: “The process with Autotech Academy takes away a significant step in the recruitment of a young person as each intern is screened and interviewed to ensure they are a good fit.”
This pre-screening ensures that interns like Ahmed are well-matched to a company's needs, making them great assets to the team.
While offering a practical route into the industry, an intern requires less mentorship than a traditional apprentice, a common misconception by time-poor, industry employers.
While often lacking experience, each intern holds the theoretical knowledge which fast-tracks their development into a fully skilled vehicle technician. To enable this, a mentor is allocated by the employer to work alongside the intern.
With JLR, the mentorship model adopted for Ahmed, and will be replicated for all future interns, involved pairing him with senior technicians during the first week to shadow and assist in progressively complex tasks.
This hands-on approach enabled the employer to assess his capability while allowing Ahmend to build confidence and skills in a real-world environment. Highlighting the efficiency and effectiveness of the mentoring process, Anthony Farron, Senior Tech Workshop Controller for JLR points out:
“Being a mentor doesn’t take a lot of time. During the first week, you are busy showing them the ropes, but we arranged for Ahmed to shadow our senior technicians and gave him simple tasks to complete like oil changes. As the week progressed, we gave him more complex jobs as we assessed him. An intern will make mistakes, but Ahmed has gone from a student to a fully-fledged vehicle technician in the space of a year and is a great addition to the workshop.
Other businesses need to give young people like Ahmed a chance. Many newly qualified technicians show real talent and a desire to work, they just need a foot inside the door.”
For Group 1 Jaguar Land Rover North West London, taking on an intern has proved to be an invaluable investment, yielding fast-tracked talent development while boosting the technical team to meet customer demands.
Ahmed’s goal is to build a longstanding career within JLR and become a master technician. He admits that support from both Autotech Academy and JLR has been pivotal in his development: “People say, you can't run before you can walk, but Autotech Academy helped me run.”
For more information visit www.autotechacademy.co.uk