Kel Stanton’s Mobile Diesel Service have been doing their bit for the industry, tripling their apprentices in the last year to help ease skills shortages and boost their own future workforce.
Having previously capped his workforce to one apprentice at a time in the workshop, owner Kel Stanton made the call in early 2024 to ramp this up to the maximum he could, committing each of his three tradespeople to supervising an apprentice.
“We’ve got a skills shortage in our industry, and it’s not going to be filled if we don’t take on more apprentices. I looked at it and thought, I’ve got three tradies, I’m going to get three apprentices and do our bit for the industry,” Kel said.
“Someone put their work into me when I was an apprentice, so now it’s my turn to put some work into new apprentices and train them up. It’s only apprentices that can fill our skills shortage. Mechanics in their 40s and 50s won’t be able to work on forever and they don’t want to.
“We’ve been selecting our apprentices based on school work experience programs for a long time, and we know we can make sure they have the right attitude through that, so we were confident that the apprentices we signed up would become good additions to the workshop as they learn.
“It’s about long-term planning as well, we want to keep them on once they’re qualified and that means we have a plan for the business moving forward,” he said.
The Caboolture business owner says that with TAFE Queensland’s flexible training options, employers no longer have to send their apprentices to long training blocks for all of their training.
“Our apprentices do about half of their training through workplace delivery, so a teacher comes out to our workshop and delivers training for each of the apprentices based on what unit they’re up to,” Kel said.
“It means we don’t send them to TAFE to train in things that we are doing regularly in our own workshop, but we send them when they’re learning skills from other parts of the industry, and we know they’ll be taught and tested properly and on the right equipment on campus.
“I’m also always onto them about the Training Record Book, making sure they put their evidence in of what they’re doing at work and also that they use the material in there to help them when they’re working.”
As the end of financial year approaches, businesses around the country are assessing their budgets and workforces, and Kel says there is no better time than now to add an extra apprentice to the mix.
“It’s been great taking on the extra apprentices,” he said.
“We’ve been putting the work into them and now our productivity is really starting to ramp up as they’re learning more and more.”
To find out more about apprenticeship training visit tafeqld.edu.au/apprenticeships or call 1300 308 233 today.