The TIP Mechanic Academy is now recruiting for the first cohort in an accelerated nine-month training course that will provide the skills and knowledge to be able to carry out trailer inspections and some limited repairs (for example, removing and replacing parts such as brake chambers and slack adjusters).
Like trailblazer apprenticeships, individual technicians will be employed to work in a specific location, and the group of 9-12 will assemble for one week a month for classroom training in a new facility at TIP’s ten-bay Nuneaton, Warwickshire site. There, they will learn about tyres, axles, brakes, electrics, suspension and superstructures, with both digital and physical resources. The classroom will have a digital whiteboard and custom-fabricated trailer teaching rigs with air brake and electrical circuits.
Once they complete the course – which includes several assessments – the mechanics will be assigned work that will be quality-checked by more experienced colleagues. More advanced tasks, such as EBS/ABS diagnostics, and maintenance of tail-lifts and lifting double-deck trailers, will come later.
During the course, trainees will be assessed against the IRTE’s irtec standard, which involves answering questions in a multiple-choice test and carrying out a trailer inspection.
TIP, which is advertising salaries of £25,000-£29,000 for TIP Mechanic Academy trainees (depending on location and experience) is hoping to attract semi-skilled technicians into the programme, explains Roy Thomas, UK & Ireland maintenance leader.
He says: “Finding someone with trailer knowledge is difficult; we have had to open up the gates more. [Still], they should have some basic knowledge of maintenance.” That might be working on cars, motorcycles or machinery.
Although the existing three-year Level 3 trailblazer apprenticeship for heavy goods vehicles service and maintenance technicians does cover trailers, Thomas says that because trucks are not serviced by TIP trailer technicians, its apprentices would not receive enough practical exposure to truck maintenance tasks to be able to pass their end-point assessment. “That’s what made us do something ourselves.” (Also, the company does offer traditional apprenticeships in office-based roles for finance, HR and procurement.)
In developing the new training scheme, the company has relied on strength in depth, specifically a mechanic development director based in the Netherlands, who helped organise the course, which will also be rolled out there, and in France, Denmark, Germany and Canada this year, and elsewhere in 2024. European training provider Innovam put the course together, and it has delegated UK training to T-10 Automotive. The first course starts in September.
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New TIP Europe technicians will be eligible to enter the company’s Mechanic Team Competition, which pits technicians from branches all over Europe against each other in a series of online questions and real-life trailer inspections. Extra points are given for those that pick up all of the deliberate faults put on to the trailer.
Running for two years, the 2023 UK winners were Sean Smith and Ian Baker, who attended the week-long European final held in Valencia, Spain in May. Sadly they didn’t place in the top three winners, which were, in place order, Benelux, Central Europe and Mediterranean. Better luck next year.