The nationwide shortage of truck technicians is rapidly reaching crisis level, with workshops finding recruitment a constant headache, and operators fearing that they may be unable to find skilled workers who can ensure their vehicles remain safe and comply with demanding regulations.
Manufacturers are reacting by investing in their apprenticeship programmes. While this will not resolve the problem in the short term, it should hopefully lead to a long-term fix.
DAF Trucks has responded by opened a new £3.5m apprentice training centre in Nottingham in conjunction with training provider Skillnet. With 11 classrooms and an 18-bay workshop, the Apprentice Academy will play host to around 500 apprentices from the manufacturer’s dealers during its first year of operation.
Matt Coates, DAF’s training and apprenticeships manager, says: “Nottingham represents a significant joint investment from both DAF and Skillnet. The result, I believe, is nothing short of the best dedicated seat of learning for young people in the commercial vehicle industry.”
The new operation replaces the training arrangement DAF had with City of Bristol College, explains DAF marketing manager, Phil Moon.
“We outgrew it, and the new academy is more centrally-based, with good road, rail and air links,” he says.
“We’ve got 460 workshop apprentices at present plus a further 60 parts apprentices,” he adds. “We should reach a total of 600 over the next two years.” Around 10% of the current intake of apprentices are female.
DEVELOP SKILLS
The workshop apprentices – DAF favours the term technical apprentices – are on a three-year programme. They must be 16 years old as a minimum, have English and Maths Grades 4-9 or the equivalent, and they will be undertaking a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship in Heavy Vehicle Maintenance and Repair.
For much of the time they are based at one of at DAF’s 130-plus dealer locations as full-time workshop employees, where they gain practical skills and hands-on experience. However, they also attend a total of 14 two-week block-release courses at the academy.
Much of the training concentrates on helping apprentices to develop and hone their diagnostic skills. The workshop possesses six sophisticated DAF DAVIE diagnostic tools.
Cheaper tablets also have an important role to play, as recent visitors to the academy learned when they were asked to put together a diagram of an electric circuit on one to help diagnose a fault on a cab door’s electric window.
Tutors use small working models to demonstrate how a truck’s mechanical components work. They are accompanied by 3D onscreen images of the same items so that trainees can gain a fuller grasp of their function.
Such knowledge is likely to prove especially valuable to apprentices restoring the academy’s 30-year-old DAF 95 430 ATi Super Space Cab 4x2 tractor unit. The ex-demonstrator should be back on the highway in 18 months to two years’ time.
Once apprentices are back at their dealerships, they have the support of skills coaches who visit them every so often to monitor the progress they are making, and identify and help them to address any training needs they may have.
Apprentices do not have to pay for any of their training and they are earning while they are learning. Unlike most students, they do not have to take out a loan in order to pursue their studies.
DAF calculates that when their wages and freedom from debt are included, apprentices can enjoy a financial advantage of as much as £120,000 over students on a university degree course over a comparable period.
PARTS AND OPERATIONS
The Level 3 Advanced Parts Apprenticeship the manufacturer also offers is delivered over 15 months. Parts apprentices address everything from processing payments and handling orders for items they may not have on their shelves to stock control and stock checking and dealing with customers.
In addition to technical and parts apprenticeships, the academy is rolling out Level 3 Advanced Service Advisor and Business Administration apprenticeships. Like the parts apprenticeship, they require a 15-month commitment.
The Operations Manager Apprenticeship, which is also offered, is a 24-month programme aimed at individuals working full-time in a department or operations manager role at a DAF dealership and leads to a Level 5 qualification.
The academy’s opening celebrates three decades of DAF’s leadership of the UK truck market and the 30th anniversary of the start of its apprentice scheme.
DAF firmly supports irtec accreditation and licensing for workshop technicians and highlights its importance at the academy.
Technicians who opt to take the irtec test are assessed on their theoretical and practical skills and, if successful, are awarded an irtec licence that is valid for five years. Nigel Beckett, DAF service and engineering director, says: “Our customers value the high standards accreditation fosters.”
Box: Renault Trucks Training Academy
In January, Renault Trucks opened a £1m workshop apprentice and technician training academy in Whetstone, Leicestershire which can run up to six courses at a time. The workshop can accommodate up to seven vehicles, including electric and diesel models, plus static engine and component rigs for practical training.
The site boasts four classrooms, plus preparation and printing rooms for use by trainers.
The apprentices that the manufacturer and its dealers need are being recruited in conjunction with GTG, its new training provider. The truck maker wants to ensure that at least 20% of the technicians across its network have undergone training as apprentices.
“We’ve got 100 apprentices at present, and we aim to have 150 in three years’ time as we grow the programme,” says Angie Morgan, human resources and competence development director at Renault Trucks. “This year’s intake will be between 30 and 40, and 5% of our apprentices are female. Attracting more female apprentices is a big focus of ours,” she continues. “We’re trying to get rid of the perception that dealer workshops are dirty, grubby places.”
The advent of electric trucks and the fact that a modern technician is more likely to be using a diagnostic tool than taking a gearbox to pieces helps. Renault has also been taking electric vehicles to schools: “We have to find ways to excite young people, and the new generation are quite wowed by electric models,” she smiles.
The prospect of being saddled with student debt if they go to university, and the appeal of earning while you are learning, is prompting some teenagers who might have opted for university to choose an apprenticeship instead, she reports. “As a consequence, we’re seeing higher calibre individuals applying than might have been the case in the past.”
Whetstone is being used to train van as well as truck technicians. The Renault Trucks line-up includes Renault Trafic and Master light commercials, and soon the Flexis electric light vehicles, due for launch in Europe in 2026. “We’ll be introducing apprenticeships for van technicians during the third quarter of this year,” says Morgan.
