MTA Queensland and the MTA Institute have long recognised the importance of giving young people the opportunity to get a basic introduction to the automotive industry.

Over the years, the two organisations have run many courses for school students and the current Auto Ready program has proved to be extremely popular.

Held over five days during school holidays, the course enables students to get a taste of workshop life, working with the MTA Institute’s experienced trainers and learning a range of tasks including how to use and maintain tools and equipment, and identifying electrical and mechanical systems and components.

Up to this year, Auto Ready has been delivered at MTA Queensland’s facility in Brisbane, but July saw two editions of the course being held across the two weeks of school holidays at Rockhampton’s Glenmore State High School.

With the school’s trade training facility already fitted with some automotive tooling, and with MTA Queensland bringing along its mobile workshop – a truck fully stocked with equipment and educational material – the 17 students who participated across the two weeks were well equipped for their first dive into an automotive workshop environment.

The courses were delivered by Lloyd Cross, the MTA Institute’s trainer for the Rockhampton region, and Scott Gehrke, the Institute’s Operations Manager.

It was, said Scott, a very successful couple of weeks, with enthusiasm high amongst the young participants, and their development smooth and swift.

“Seeing the progress of the students is always very satisfying,” he said. “From learning to use tools correctly to having confidence in completing tasks in front of their peers, all the students showed real improvement in skills and confidence across the week.

“On the final day we had some competitions around changing wheels and removing and replacing engine components off engines and that really showed how much they improved, how much they had understood, and how much confidence they had.”

For Jordan Arthy, a 15-year-old student from Glenmore SHS, the Auto Ready course cemented her plans to look at becoming a mechanic.

“I enjoyed the course a lot, and I learnt a lot more than I already knew about the industry,” she said. “It was fun learning about some of the things that are done in this career, and I now know I would like to do it.”

For 16-year-old Glenmore SHS student Angellus Burlinson, who is already taking an automotive course at school, the Auto Ready program confirmed his thinking that a career in the industry might be one to consider too. It was, he said, a fun experience.

“Theory was actually fun! I didn’t think it would be,” he said. “I liked the interesting videos and the passion of the teachers – they made it fun. It was very informative, lots of fun, and gave a good perspective of the automotive industry.”

The MTA Institute plans to deliver the Auto Ready program to other regional areas and there has, said Scott, been interest from other locations and schools. He added that while there is a requirement for a suitable facility to be available to enable the delivery of the course, no tooling would be required as the Institute’s mobile workshop would be available.

“Seeing the progress students made here in Rockhampton was great and their feedback has been very positive,” he said. “Enabling young people to have this experience is important as they get to see if an automotive career is something they might like to pursue. We look forward to providing more students from across the state the opportunity to have that experience.”

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (July 2022)

15 July 2022