Skills crisis hits breaking point: Industry leaders finally talk collaboration

The automotive service sector’s skills shortage has reached crisis point, with apprenticeship numbers plummeting 25 per cent last year – and it’s affecting everyone from main dealers to independent workshops.

Encouragingly, industry leaders are publicly acknowledging that this isn’t a problem any single sector can solve alone.

During a panel session at this year’s Autocare convention in Brisbane, MTAQ chief executive Rod Camm delivered some sobering statistics that confirm what many VASA member workshops are experiencing on the ground.

“If you look at apprenticeship commencements in our industry, they have declined by 25 per cent last year,” he said. “That tells me that in four years’ time, we’ll still be talking about skills shortages.”

Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) CEO James Voortman confirmed that the technician shortage is creating a ceiling for network expansion at an OEM level.

Some sources have suggested to SightGlass that the lack of qualified tradespeople is hampering not just existing brands trying to grow their networks, but new entrants from China and elsewere that are attempting to establish proper aftersales operations.

“Dealer technicians are having to work harder than ever to try and ensure their customers are well served,” Mr Voortman said, adding that customers are experiencing longer wait times regardless of where they choose to service their vehicles.

The collaboration push

Strikingly, the Autocare panel discussion revealed a genuine appetite for collaboration across traditional industry boundaries, where tensions around access to repair information, attempts to quash competition between aftermarket workshops and dealer service departments, and rhetoric about genuine parts have fractured relations over the years.

Chairing the panel session, Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association CEO Stuart Charity acknowledged this head-on, noting that AADA executive director of operations Brian Savage was sitting in the audience.

“It’d be good to get a whole industry approach to this, particularly about changing the perception of our industry, because I think there are some real outdated perceptions about what careers in our industry are all about,” Mr Charity said.

“I think everyone’s doing some great things individually but having that unified voice and collective effort, I think, would be useful.”

Mr Voortman told SightGlass separately that the AADA was ready to build on existing collaborative foundations, pointing to recent joint initiatives between automotive industry bodies addressing skills challenges.

“There have been a number of joint initiatives between the automotive industry bodies in recent years which have tried to address the skills challenges,” Mr Voortman said.

“For example, the AADA partnered with AAAA and MTAQ on research into apprentice completions. We have also worked with MTAA, AAAA and other groups on skills issues such as increases to the temporary migrant income threshold, EV training and apprentice incentives.”

Crucially, he acknowledged that while dealer and aftermarket groups don’t agree on everything, their interests are aligned when it comes to skills.

“There are too many vehicles on our roads for any one part of the industry to service and repair alone,” he said. “Australia needs a thriving network of authorised dealers and a strong independent repair sector to adequately service the diverse and varying demands of Australia’s motorists and to do this we need to address the skills crisis across the board.”

Technology is changing the game

The complexity of modern vehicles presents opportunities and risks when it comes to skills shortages. For example, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and electrification are creating new skill requirements whilst traditional pathways into the industry – like learning from parents tinkering in sheds – have largely disappeared.

Mr Camm observed that “young people today don’t often have parents in the backyard working on cars anymore. They’re too hi-tech. It’s just not the way society works”.

He also pointed out that the automotive industry had fallen off the radar of many young people as a potential career choice but that MTAQ and others were working on it.

“We’re having to spend a lot more time in schools now, showcasing all of the occupations that are in our industry, because kids haven’t been exposed to it,” Mr Camm said.

The panel agreed that the national training system struggles to keep pace with technological change, with ADAS competencies notably absent from current apprenticeship programmes despite the technology’s rapid proliferation.

“National training packages are way behind,” Mr Camm said, noting that while EV and hybrid training was up to date – driven by concerns about encroachment into the automotive sector by electrical tradespeople – ADAS training remained minimal outside industry-led initiatives.

“There’s a very light touch competency there for an apprentice that doesn’t really teach them anything,” he pointed out.

Vehicle complexity, while creating training challenges, could be an attraction for young people if marketed well.

The panel agreed that there was genuine optimism about attracting new talent, particularly as vehicles become more technologically advanced and the availability of careers beyond traditional mechanical roles expands.

“People who start an apprenticeship and complete it can have a lifetime of employment, no question about that,” Mr Camm said.

“They can end up in very senior roles across the industry, across the world. It’s pretty exciting stuff.”

The success story of former GM Holden chair and managing director Alan Batey – who entered the industry as a mechanical engineering apprentice with Vauxhall in Britain and worked his way up to global head of the Chevrolet brand and General Motors president of North America before retiring in 2019 – shows the career potential that exists but there are many, many more examples.

Looking overseas for inspiration

Former Ford Australia president Graeme Whickman, now managing director and CEO of aftermarket conglomerate Amotiv, suggested a two-pronged approach combining whole-of-industry coordination with skilled migration.

“When I look around the world, I’ve seen some pretty decent whole-of-industry approaches,” Mr Whickman said, citing examples from the United States community college system, Germany’s internship programs and South Korea’s national skills competitions.

“In Australia, we had a complete automotive industry, unusual in the world. This industry has grown up with every part of the solution,” he said, adding that the sophisticated nature of modern vehicles could be a drawcard for tech-savvy youth.

Addressing workforce expectations

The panel also highlighted the changing expectations of younger workers entering the industry, particularly around workplace safety and psychological wellbeing.

Supercheap Auto managing director Benjamin Ward noted that young people want to work in environments that prioritise both physical and mental safety.

“Young people want to be safe; that’s physically safe, they want to be mentally safe, and they want an environment of psychological safety and the ability to speak up,” he said.

“Those elements probably didn’t exist when we were younger and coming into our own careers.”

Mr Ward said the retail giant, which faces a 30 per cent staff turnover across its operations, has invested more heavily in training as an attempt to drive retention whilst acknowledging the risk of losing employees to competitors.

“You don’t want to spend millions of dollars training a workforce that’s just going to leave you or go to a competitor, but if you don’t train them, they’re going to leave anyway,” he said.

GPC Asia Pacific managing director Rob Cameron added that greater diversity would help address workforce gaps and had observed the industry’s evolution from its traditionally closed culture.

“When I started 33 years ago, it used to be a really closed industry … unless you were an automotive parts guy, you could not break into the industry,” he said.

“That world has completely changed. The industry is now actually more attractive to employees.”

Mr Camm said MTAQ operates the state’s largest automotive training provider and that it has more than 100 people on its books seeking work in the industry.

“We need to diversify our workplaces so there’s more women, more people with ethnic backgrounds, more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, because they’re the ones that are disengaged in the labour market,” he said.

Immediate action needed

Like aftermarket workshops, dealer service departments are trying multiple approaches to address the skills gap.

“Many are resorting to employing migrants, but we have also started to see dealerships reaching out to their communities, partnering with local TAFEs and colleges and even attempting to make school-based apprenticeships available,” Mr Voortman said.

For new automotive brands entering Australia, Mr Voortman said the overwhelming majority are partnering with established dealers who have the benefit of experienced technicians and capital to invest in state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.

“It’s critical that the new brands entering Australia invest in aftersales and it’s important for all brands to adopt practices which make working in the dealership service department the best possible experience,” he said.

Mr Cameron suggested Australia could lead globally in developing innovative training solutions.

“We could do something as an industry that was pretty special and could be the blueprint of something around the world by getting our act together,” he said. 

“I think we should take a leadership role.”

What’s needed now is action rather than more talking. The panel agreed that addressing the skills shortage required immediate action rather than waiting for long-term solutions, with Mr Camm suggesting that the goal of unified industry associations should be achieved within a year, rather than five to seven years.

The challenge, as always, will be herding the various industry cats in the same direction.

With apprenticeship numbers in freefall and the skills shortage affecting everyone from the smallest independent workshop to the largest dealer groups, the incentive to collaborate has never been stronger.

It’s time to stop thinking about this as separate industries with competing interests and start treating it as one automotive ecosystem that needs qualified technicians to survive and thrive.