LKQ Academy has announced it will be opening 10 training centres across the UK, in a £500,000 investment to help garages and bodyshops prosper by up-skilling technicians and support staff.
The training arm of LKQ UK & Ireland has already opened two UK centres this year, with sites in Glasgow and at its revamped Tamworth T1 base.
The company has recruited five trainers as part of the expansion so far, alongside signing an exclusive contract with Andy Savva. Andy will deliver training on how garages and workshops can help to improve their operations, customer service and profitability.
LKQ is now set to open a site in Manchester from April 2024. The training provider will also reveal plans for a further three sites set for the south of England later in 2024, with four more centres opening in 2025.
The 10 sites will add to LKQ Academy’s existing centres in Sunderland and Bristol, alongside 26 external sites, creating a total capacity of 11,000 seats on 80 different courses.
The sites will use state of the art technology including virtual reality, to create learning experiences for garage and bodyshop professionals to up-skill.
Courses will range from delivering the skills needed to service electric vehicles, to helping support staff to become more adept at handling customers’ technical queries. Last year the LKQ Academy launched a course designed to help bodyshops take action on sustainability, which sits alongside a range of courses designed specifically for bodyshop technicians.
Alongside its in-person training, the LKQ Academy provides hundreds of e-learning courses, with training soon to launch on topics from servicing hydrogen vehicles to identifying and fixing AdBlue system faults.
Lee Chapman, Head of Support, LKQ Academy, said: “We’re creating true UK wide coverage for the LKQ Academy, making our industry-leading in-person training accessible to most of the country’s professionals in a two-hour drive or less.
“UK expansion is essential to our mission to close the skills gap in the industry, and to help the independent aftermarket keep pace with the dealers, while adapting to major changes from digitalisation and meeting ever changing consumer demands for high standards of customer service, while adapting to work with smarter cleaner and greener vehicles.
“We invest all proceeds from the LKQ Academy back into our training, which means all of our are courses part-funded to provide great value for customers. It’s the right thing to do to help the aftermarket ecosystem to succeed. If garages and bodyshops have the right skills to prosper, LKQ prospers with them.”
Andy Savva added: “It’s exciting to be joining forces with the LKQ Academy. Its dedication to providing high-quality training, represented by its latest expansion drive, mirrors my own commitment to supporting the growth and success of aftermarket businesses. I’m delighted to be delivering my training courses to their customers. Together, we look forward to equipping professionals with the tools and knowledge they need to thrive.”
