Brydon Dennis is the MTA Institute Apprentice of the month for July 2024.
The 26-year-old is about to start the third year of his light vehicle apprenticeship working for Tony Fasano at the modern, advanced Auto Giant workshop in Brendale, north Brisbane. He is also on the fast track to finish his training early – a result of his ability, enthusiasm, and dedication to pursue an automotive career and to learn as much as he can on that journey.
While he came a little late to the trade, Brydon always had an interest and passion for cars and harboured an ambition to work in the automotive industry from early on. However, the opportunity to pursue that ambition tooka while to arrive, and he worked a number of jobs prior to being taken on by Auto Giant. Those jobs did, however, provide a good grounding when the move to the workshop came.
“I’d always worked in factories before working here, and in those factories I had the opportunity to work on a lot of different machines and mechanical and electrical hydraulics, and got a taste of working on motors,” said Brydon. “I worked on my own car too, including rebuilding the motor, and that also helped to get me in the door here at Auto Giant. Tony looked at all that and saw something in me and took me on.”
Leaving one career to start again as an apprentice in another is a big step, but when the chance comes, said Brydon, you have to take it. Given a tip by a friend of the opportunity at Auto Giant, he reached out to Tony to see if he could take that step.
“One of my good friends used to work here, and he sort of gave me a heads-up and said to send through my resume. And then I kept on pestering Tony until he got back to me with the sign-up papers,” said Brydon. “At the time, I realised that I wasn’t going to get another opportunity to get into something like this. You just have to jump on the opportunity sometimes.”
With Auto Giant offering services for all makes and models of vehicle, Brydon is getting to learn in a first-class workshop environment, and he likes to push and challenge himself to get everything out of the experience.
“I enjoy pretty much everything that we do here, but I do prefer doing big engine jobs and getting into the nitty gritty stuff. The diagnostic work really interests me as well,” he said. “The only way to get the knowledge under your belt is to work on everything. I always try and take the bigger jobs, if I can, to learn more and more.”
While he is moving swiftly through his apprenticeship training, Brydon recognises that the automotive industry is evolving in such a way that training will be a major feature of his career moving forward, including when it comes to electrified vehicles.
So, more training is definitely on the cards. Beyond that, there’s the potential to establish a really successful career with Auto Giant as it too evolves and expands.
“Tony wants to have more shops, so there are opportunities there and that would be a great future,” said Brydon. “In the meantime, I’m looking at doing an introductory course into hybrid and electric vehicles with MTAQ once I’ve finished my apprenticeship. I need to get my head around that because we’re not going have a choice in 10 years or so. Also, as soon as I finish this apprenticeship, hopefully I can start the sign-up process to do my heavy vehicle apprenticeship, and I’d also look at doing auto electrical as well.”
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (August 2024)
11 August 2024
