The unusual thing is how the new apprenticeship was created: not through the trailblazer programme, but instead by modifying an existing two-year technician standard mainly intended for passenger cars.
“Accident repair in bus and coach has failed for many years. What it has missed out is a focus on accident repair engineering,” says Adonis Kleanthous, former training and development manager at London bus operator Metroline, speaking in early July.
He continues: “We wanted to fine-tune the engineering for bodywork; a year is too short [existing programmes only cover body repair in the second year]. You’re only training someone for four or five weeks.” But bodywork repair is artistic, difficult to understand and to master, the training manager states.
Kleanthous adds that Metroline’s own roster of bodywork technicians totals 26 across 12 garages and two accident repair sites in Perivale and Hayes in west London. It also operates a bus overhaul operation, performing refurbishments, resprays and reupholstering. Together, the technicians are responsible for minor and major bodywork repairs for some 3,000 buses. “Body repair, restructuring and quick repairs: those three elements are key to teaching someone a higher standard of accident repair.”
The team is sometimes stretched, and as a whole are ageing, so their numbers need to be increased. “This won’t be a one-off group. It’s going to be continuous. We needed to do something, take action, and replenish with fresh blood so we don’t fall behind,” Kleanthous concludes.
Metroline approached S&B Automotive Academy (at whose premises Metroline’s technicians have competed in the IRTE Skills Challenge for a number of years). There, senior operations manager Aaron Lang began to research potential options, mapping competences in available apprenticeships, eventually settling on the accident repair technician qualification, for light vehicles. Lang says: “We deliver the core element of the light vehicle standard that they need for the EPA. We also adjust the whole training with a bus focus, and modify for the future.” (The latter means adding a few EV and hydrogen bus electrical topics.)
He adds: “In the first year, apprentices do basic mechanical, electrical and trim, then basic panel and basic paint and refinishing, and then it’s more advanced in the second year. They are sequenced like a full job, start to finish. By the end of the first year, they would be doing things like priming, vehicle masking, and by the end of the programme have moved on to full repairs, jig work and advanced paintwork.” There are 18 blocks fitted into the same two-year schedule.
The first cohort began their studies in late June; a second cohort from other operators is planned for the autumn.
BOX: ALTERNATIVE CHOICE
Vehicle bodybuilder TVS Interfleet has created a new bodybuilding apprenticeship launching in September in conjunction with the College of West Anglia. Eight places will be offered within the welding and body fitter departments across its Wisbech and Market Deeping sites this year. Operations director Ian Walch says: “TVS Interfleet has grown significantly over the last couple of years and we’re continually looking at ways to strengthen our workforce to meet our ambitious growth plans.”