Remit Training’s CEO, Sue Pittock discusses the shortage of EV technicians opening up.
One of the lesser known Brexit outcomes is that Britain actually has a more ambitious target than the EU in banning the future sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. Here the ban is set for 2030 and there is now a massive challenge to find 90,000 electric vehicle qualified technicians to keep our EVs on the road.
As the biggest UK trainer of EV technician apprentices with several global brands as our employer clients, Remit Training is at the forefront of meeting this challenge and three aspects of it currently stand out:
1. Ensuring a regular pipeline of young talent is coming through
Apprenticeships are our preferred form of training because they give young people the right blend of knowledge, skills and behaviours to thrive in the automotive sector. Unfortunately the government approved standards for technicians haven’t kept pace with the rise of EV and so one customised solution for our employer partners is to bolt on commercial Level 3 EV courses accredited by IMI at the end of a 3-year apprenticeship.
2. Supporting young trainees after the pandemic
Completing a three-year apprenticeship requires the right training and support. For example, our 16 to 18 year old apprentices missed school during the pandemic and can sometimes find their new work-based environment bewildering. The last thing we should be doing is to play this down and be telling them just to get on with it. Remit’s response has been to invest considerably in mental health awareness provision for staff and apprentices with positive results.
3. Good quality EV training requires ongoing investment
Remit has two state-of-the-art training academies in Derby which are attended by apprentices and commercially funded trainees on block release from all over England and we now plan to open another in the south to meet increasing demand. Scottish apprentices receive their training at our academy in Motherwell. Much of our income is invested back into the business to ensure that we can meet employers’ expectations as the technology including that for EV keeps advancing, and vehicles and trucks at the academies need replacing. We also need dedicated trainers for EV and the salaries on offer must be competitive.
Our employer partners are fantastic in helping us source rigs, vehicles and kit at competitive prices, but costs and rising inflation are a real issue. Support from the manufacturers in the form of discounted or gifted equipment or vehicles has therefore never been more appreciated to help maintain up-to-date training for the next generation of technicians.
Facing up to a potentially unregulated technician market
Only 6% of the current 250,000 technicians in the automotive sector are EV qualified. The danger is that in the rush to catch up, the industry becomes too reliant on unregulated commercial EV technician training which has serious implications for both technician safety and the amount of time that EVs spend in a garage compared with petrol cars.
In the meantime, the answer is for training providers to work closely with the manufacturers to encourage growth in apprenticeships and properly regulated commercial training. We have benefitted first-hand from the forging of strong partnerships and this is the way forward.
